CRACK DEALERS THREATEN MORE CITIES WITH VIOLENCE

Poor And Black Communities At Cocaine's Frontline

Crack cocaine dealers are spreading their trade away from London to other
cities, threatening an "extraordinary level of violence", high levels of
crime and social decline, a conference heard yesterday. The Home Office
minister, Bob Ainsworth, said that the highly addictive class A drug was
more difficult to deal with than heroin because less was known about how
best to treat repeat users.

Referring to the pockets of "gun and crack" culture that had emerged in the
capital, Mr Ainsworth warned that poor black communities were particularly
vulnerable to the dealers, and urged support for local initiatives that
disrupted the supply of the drug, which is thought to come mostly from Jamaica.

Mr Ainsworth was speaking at a pioneering conference in Birmingham hosted
by the Home Office to highlight what is seen by the police as "potentially
[their] biggest challenge".

Though London has been battling against Yardie style gangsters for several
years, the problem appeared to be relatively self contained.

Now police fear that dealers have taken hold in Bristol, and are spreading
their trade to other cities, such as Liverpool and Manchester.

Statistics from the Metropolitan police show that, while there is no
evidence of a crack epidemic, recorded offences for trafficking crack rose
from 493 in the year to March 2000, to 1,117 in the year to March 2002 - a
three fold increase. The number of recorded offences of possession rose
from 713 to 829.

Twenty-one people were murdered in London during 2001 in drug related
shootings. Last year, the Met's dedicated "black on black" crime unit,
Operation Trident, arrested 441 people, nearly all aged between 16 and 35,
and seized 620 kilos of class A drugs, mostly cocaine.

Mr Ainsworth stressed that while "some urban areas have significant
problems, many other areas remain largely unaffected."

"The levels of violence associated with crack cocaine are very disturbing
and they are very clearly linked to the supply of that drug.

"Crack cocaine, I think, tends to a disproportionate degree, although not
exclusively, to be a problem for poorer communities.

"The black community does have a problem. The levels of violence with the
black community are quite extraordinary."

John Witton, researcher with the charity Action on Addiction, said that
research in the probation service showed that more than 50% of those
interviewed about drugs were using crack.

"Clearly crack use is becoming more common in the UK, particularly in
cities like London, Liverpool and Manchester. Of real concern to us is the
link between crack use and offending."

He said drug treatment services were geared towards heroin use, and while
there is no "ready pharmacological solution for crack, like methadone for
heroin use, we know crack can be successfully treated.

"We need to find out more about what approaches work best for crack use.
The evidence suggests that crack treatment needs are best met with a range
of approaches - from counselling, for those with more straightforward
problems, to intense residential approaches for those with severe needs."

The Met believes that up to 20% of the crack cocaine brought into the
country comes in via human mules.

Customs officers have recently targeted flights from Jamaica, but the
agency has denied claims by the British high commissioner on the island
that one in 10 passengers flying to the UK was smuggling cocaine.

Security at Norman Manley airport has been increased and passengers fitting
the smuggler profile are being stopped as a matter of routine.

"The way the importation is conducted, through human ingestion, places
those people, victims themselves, at tremendous risk to their own life,"
said Commander Alan Brown, head of Operation Trident.