FESTIVE OMEN FOR DRUG PEDDLERS

A WARNING shot has been fired to drug dealers over the festive season:
the fight against peddling of poisonous wares in Perthshire will not
let up over Christmas and the New Year.

While many local residents consider the festive season a holiday
period, Tayside police don't and will continue to hunt down those who
deal out drug misery, vowed the head of Tayside's Drugs Branch,
Detective Inspector Iain Wales

"It is not acceptable for people to be causing death and misery across
Tayside," he said.

And, DI Wales warned, it is the high end of the drug market dealers
will be cashing in on this festive season.

He said: "Drug dealers certainly don't take holidays, they see this as
a boom time for them, particularly in the cocaine market.

"In recent years cocaine is seen as more acceptable in Tayside. It is
seen as a party drug - and cocaine dealers see this as their Christmas
time."

But he warned: "We don't take holidays either. We are working right
through the Christmas holidays.

"We have several ongoing operations and we don't stop.

"We are absolutely committed to ridding the streets of Tayside of
drugs," he pledged.

He appealed for the Perthshire public to help with the fight to rid
their community of drugs.

"Information is the life blood of our department," DI Wales
explained.

"We rely on the public. They might have a little bit of information
they think is inconsequential but it could complete the jigsaw for
us."

Detective Inspector Iain Wales added: "People cannot say that just
because they do not know a drug addict the issue doesn't affect them."

Users often turn to crime, such as housebreaking, to fund their habit
which means no-one is immune from the drug culture.

DI Wales pleaded: "Please make it a New Year resolution to do all you
can to help us target the drug dealers."

Anyone with information on drug dealing or drug-related crime is urged
to contact the police.