UNDERCOVER POLICE TARGET MIDDLE-CLASS COCAINE USERS

UNDERCOVER detectives are posing as posh drugs suppliers to catch
middle-class cocaine users, Britain's top police officer said today.

Sir Ian Blair said Scotland Yard was using smartly-dressed officers in
"sting operations" to catch more affluent drug takers.

The tactic is seemingly a bid to honour a pledge Sir Ian made on
assuming control of Britain's biggest force a year ago, when he
insisted he wanted to stop cocaine replacing wine at dinner parties.

Sir Ian said: "What we are trying to do is make people understand that
when they buy from a supplier, they find they are buying from a
Metropolitan Police officer. And that is quite an upsetting
experience, I understand."

Sir Ian added that the strategy, under which detectives take the place
of dealers who are arrested, had already proved to be a success.