NORTH'S 'HEROIN BLACKSPOT' FACES RISE IN DRUGS CRIME

Ballymena is the North's heroin blackspot, and use of the drug has led to
an increase in local crime, according to the RUC drugs squad. Eighty-five
per cent of the £25,440 worth of heroin seized by the RUC in the North last
year and most of the £6,200 worth of crack cocaine was in the Co Antrim
town, said Det Sgt O.J. Hamilton.

Ballymena is a prosperous and predominantly Protestant country town about
30 miles north of Belfast. The population of the district council area is
58,000, about a fifth of the size of greater Belfast.

Heroin was brought to the town by a core of about 10 drug dealers who
became addicted to it themselves after being introduced to the drug by
dealers in England, said Sgt Hamilton.

The situation has worsened over the past two years, with evidence of a
trend towards injecting rather than smoking the drug.

A three-year-old child from the town was admitted to Antrim Area Hospital
last year suffering from heroin- and crack cocaine-induced seizures, a
recent council meeting was told by a member of the local RUC crime team. It
is believed the child, whose parents are addicts, may have picked up the
drugs from the floor.

The heroin problem, centred in some of the North's most deprived estates,
is still "embryonic", said Sgt Hamilton. The RUC drug squad and crime team
are targeting local dealers. The heroin on sale in Ballymena is brown and
30 per cent pure, according to Sgt Hamilton. It costs £35 for a third of a
gram, but is frequently sold underweight, he said.

Most is dealt from houses and on the streets of estates. "The people who
are now starting to exhibit problems with it are those who have been on it
a while. The ones we are noticing on it through drug crime tend to be from
deprived housing estates. There has been a bit of a correlation between
crime to fund the habit, but having said that, there is no raging crime
wave," said Sgt Hamilton.