POLICE ALL ABOARD FOR PUB DRUGS RAID

POLICE used a double-decker London bus to sneak up on a pub where they
believed cocaine was being dealt.

Seventy-eight officers in full body armour then leapt out of the bus and
stormed the pub. Ten people were arrested in the raid.

Packed on to the red number 221 bus last night, 78 police in full body
armour were able to get within yards of the Sparrowhawk pub on the
Broadfields estate in Barnet, North London, before anyone noticed them. The
bus had been fitted with colour closed-circuit television cameras inside
and out to record the operation.

The bus was followed by two transport lorries, each carrying a portable
building. They were lifted on to the pavement in front of the pub by a
crane, and everyone inside the bar was led out in turn to one of the cabins
to be strip searched.

Superintendent Sean O'Brien, who was in charge of the raid, said: "It's all
about thinking outside the box. Someone said they knew someone with some
Portakabins and we thought we'll give that a go."