POLICE ARREST 26 IN OPERATION AGAINST WEST END DRUG DEALERS

One of the largest undercover operations mounted by the Metropolitan police
ended yesterday with a series of raids on alleged crack dealers. The raids
were a response to the growth of London's theatreland as a significant
venue for the sale of crack.

Over the last few months, undercover officers have been filmed buying small
quantities of crack from dealers in the Shaftesbury Avenue area of London.
Police are increasingly employing this tactic because of the difficulty of
gaining convictions without such evidence.

Twenty-six people, 22 men and four women, were arrested as part of
Operation Philosophy throughout Lonson yesterday. It is understood that
armed officers were present on a number of the raids.

Shaftesbury Avenue had become increasingly well known as a place where #15-
#20 deals of crack could be bought.

The buyers included people from all parts of London and potential clients
were approached openly by dealers offering the crack for sale.

'We believe that the dealers were holding up to 30 deals in their mouth at
any one time,' said Detective Inspector Sharon Rowe of the Metropolitan
police yesterday. She said that the deals, wrapped in cling film, would be
'coughed' out of the dealer's mouth into his or her hand and transferred to
the mouth of the purchaser.

Some dealers employed young women who would kiss purchasers to transfer the
drug so that the drugs were never exposed to view.

Undercover officers acted the part of users to buy test purchases which
would be recorded on film by hidden video camera.

It was the biggest undercover drugs operation mounted by the Metropolitan
police since Operation Welwyn in King's Cross in 1991. After that
operation, many of the dealers were jailed or dispersed. Commander Paddy
Tomkins, the officer in charge of the area, said police were aware
displacement might occur when an area was swamped by police.

The raids are part of the Met's new anti-drugs campaign which was launched
this week.

In a separate operation in northern England, 21 people, 13 men and eight
women, were arrested yesterday morning in a National Crime Squad operation
targeted at heroin dealing.

Operation Ambrose followed nine months of surveillance and involved 150
officers in raids in Newcastle, Blyth, Sunderland, North Shields, Whitley
Bay, Wallsend, Berwick, Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford and Middlesbrough.

Police are increasingly playing 'the long game' to arrest dealers. In the
past, some have evaded conviction because of lack of evidence and because
the activities of a small number of corrupt officers had made it possible
for dealers to claim convincingly that they had been planted with drugs.