HEROIN VICTIM, 13 'WAS DRUGS COURIER'

THE 13-year-old boy who became Britain's youngest heroin victim was forced
to deliver drugs around a Glasgow housing estate, according to residents.
Allan
Harper, who died of a heroin overdose five weeks ago, was bullied into
making drug drops by a dealer on the Cranhill estate.

The dealer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is understood to have
used young boys and girls as look-outs and runners who carried heroin to
neighbouring drug addicts and other dealers.

The children, some as young as 11 or 12, were paid in cash or drugs by the
dealer. One woman said: "It's just horrific, the children either got cash
or drugs for doing the deliveries. This makes it almost impossible for
parents to
protect them. Temptation is put in their way."

A neighbour also reported seeing Harper regularly arriving and leaving the
dealer's flat. It is understood Harper was used by the dealer to deliver
the drugs as he would not be suspected by police because of his youth.

One man said: "Allan was exploited by this guy. He was used to drop off
bags of smack [heroin] as nobody would suspect a boy like him. People think
he started dabbling because of the running."

Harper was found dead on January 3 in a top-floor flat in Startpoint
Street, Cranhill, the home of Stephen Young, the former boyfriend of
Harper's mother, Jacqueline Ford. Harper had died of a heroin overdose and
his body had
been partially eaten by Young's Japanese fighting dogs.

The dealer responsible has since fled the estate after death threats from
rival dealers, whose lucrative trade has been disrupted by the heavy police
presence in the area. More than 76 arrests have been made and 100 drug
offences
reported since police began swamping the area after Harper's death.

On Tuesday raids by Strathclyde police on houses in the Greater Easterhouse
area, into which Cranhill falls, uncovered heroin, cannabis and temazepam
with a street value of £500,000. A handgun has also been recovered.

Louis Munn, chief superintendent of Greater Easterhouse, would not be drawn
on any suggestions made against Harper, but said the police remained
anxious to trace the drugs that killed him. He encouraged anyone with
information to come forward.

Ford reacted angrily yesterday to the suggestion that herson had been
involved in the drugs trade. "This is the first I have heard of this. Allan
would not do such a thing and if he did I would have known. People are
talking and they don't know what they are saying. It is rubbish," she said.

A group of mothers in Cranhill launched a campaign to reclaim their area
from drug dealers and addicts with a candle-lit march on Thursday night.

On the pavement a solitary figure, with a scarf covering his mouth and his
fingers drawn into the shape of a gun, cocked and pushed against his head,
delivered a warning to the women: "You're dead".

Illuminated by candles and lanterns, mothers, grandmothers and sisters last
week marched in silent protest against those who threatened their
community, known as "smack city". The feeling was simple but unanimous: the
time had come to fight back.

"We're not scared any more of idiots," said Rose McKay, 40, a cleaner and
mother of two, who dismissed the shadowy figure as she marched along the
dark route. "Instead we want our homes back, we want the dealers out and
our streets safe to walk along."

They sought inspiration for the march from the women of Northern Ireland,
where in the early 1990s an organisation united women on both sides of the
religious divide to march for peace.

Behind the scenes of the demonstrations two local women have been actively
fighting to clean up their community, quietly tipping off police about
dealers for the past year and a half.

Angered by pushers hanging around schools and openly selling heroin in the
streets, they have been having regular monthly meetings with Strathclyde
police, health and social workers from Glasgow council and various other
community organisations in order to pass on information.

One woman who took part in the meetings was scared of the possible
consequences. "I was frightened doing this," she said. "I would leave if I
had the money. I'm not ashamed to say that if I had a choice I would stop
this campaigning and get out of here. It's like living in a gangster
movie."

In order to avoid confrontation, men were not invited. Helen McGuiness, a
35-year-old mother of two, explained: "The worry was if men walked with us,
someone might shout something nasty and they would react.

"A fight would do us no good. We thought it would have more impact with
just women and children."

The women will now be pushing to change the law to allow anyone caught in
possession of drugs to be evicted. The issues will be raised at a public
meeting attended by residents, police, religious leaders and council
officials tomorrow night.

However, it is the children in their own streets whom they most wish to reach.

During the march, a lanky youth in a baseball cap and designer jeans
shrugged and laughed: "If the cops can't stop the dealers, what good is
someone's ma?"