WARNING TO DRUG DEALERS

We know who you are and we are coming to get you.

That's the prosecutors' warning to drug dealers, as they continue to
compile evidence against the city's pushers of misery.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) worked alongside Humberside Police
during the recent Operation Midas raids.

In one month, it resulted in 43 low-level drug dealers being arrested
and sentenced to a total of 128 years in prison.

Although raids were carried out over a five-day period, the
investigation into each of the dealers goes back nine months to last
summer, when undercover officers began gathering evidence and detailed
files on class A drug dealers.

And today senior prosecutors said files of detailed evidence were
continually being complied on dealers across the city.

They say this will allow them to carry out another successful series
of raids, and again secure quick convictions in the courts.

Humberside Chief Crown Prosecutor Nigel Cowgill said: "Operation Midas
was the latest in a series of major operations that the CPS and
Humberside Police have worked on together.

"The first one of these is now over three years ago, Operation
Hatch.

"Since that time we have built on our experience with dealing with
these cases and we have been working hard to ensure people who deal in
drugs and create an atmosphere of misery for the population are
effectively dealt with.

"In this case my prosecutors worked closely with the police officers,
staying late into the night in police stations to ensure the right
people were charged with the right offences.

"More than 80 people are now facing prosecutions as a result of this
operation. I can assure the people of Humberside we will continue to
work in this way."

Operation Midas included a week of raids. Last week, cases were heard
in Hull Crown Court over four days. The CPS worked with police to put
together detailed individual cases, so offenders could be swiftly
brought before the courts.

CPS officials were based in police stations as officers brought in
offenders following morning raids to ensure they were given immediate
charging advice.

Higher court advocate Jayne Bryant said: "Over four weeks prior to the
raids we worked on all the files and looked at the evidence, so once
all the arrests were made the cases could be brought before the courts
quickly.

"During the raids we worked until midnight to ensure the police had a
prosecutor at the police station to advise them if they needed it.

"We have worked from cradle to grave on this, from creating the
original files to prosecuting the cases when they come to court.!

Higher court advocate Mike Wrigglesworth said: "The police put in a
lot of hard work and it paid dividends."

Links

Crown Prosecution Service

www.cps.gov.uk

Humberside Police

www.humberside.police.uk