POLICE IN DRUG RAIDS DRAMA

Crack dealers across Ipswich woke this morning to find more than 70 police
officers battering their doors down.

In a dramatic series of early morning raids some of the most notorious drug
dealers in east Suffolk were targetted.

After months of patiently gathering information against them, today was the
day the police swooped into action and the dealers who prey on the young
and the vulnerable themselves became the prey.

Eight people were soon arrested as officers taking part in Operation Taurus
stormed 12 addresses in the town between 7 and 8am this morning hoping to
catch the dealers unawares.

Shouting "police police", officers wearing body armour raided and searched
various addresses.

At one house, in Pelican Close, officers found the door open but, as a
burglar alarm sounded as they ran in, they discovered no one there. While
search teams looked for drugs a second house, in Sheldrake Drive, was
targetted.

Having parked behind the house a team of six officers approached the door.

Within seconds the door was smashed open with a battering ram and the
shouting officers launched their offensive.

One man sat bewildered on the sofa as the police dog searched for the drugs
police suspected to be there.

Other teams were already having more immediate success with arrests being
made and a haul of suspected crack cocaine found in an address in London Road

The raids were a result of weeks of intelligence gathering and were
designed to target the most prolific dealers in the town.

Chief Superintendent Geoff Munns said: "The arrival of crack cocaine in
Suffolk has been very notable.

"We are not complacent. We are now in a position to take out a large number
of the most substantial dealers of class A drugs in Ipswich many weeks of
hard and difficult work have brought us to this morning."

The forces drugs dogs were employed to search the houses and officers
carried out fingertip searches of the addresses.

Other raids were carried out on homes in Dandalan Close, Wilberforce
Street, Highfield Road, Plover Road, Stevenson Road, Norwich Court,
Bramford Road, Rendlesham Road, and Mountbatten Road.