'TACKLE DRUGS PROBLEM' CALL

These bag contains millions of pounds of heroin There have been calls for
urgent action to combat the growing use of trends in the south Wales
valleys after new figures revealed Newport has overtaken Bristol as the
prime source for drugs users in south Wales.

Gwent Police estimates that there are 4,500 drug users in the south east
Wales area with 100 dealers in operation.

David Jeremiah of the Gwent Drug and Alcohol Team said some areas of the
problem were being tackled - but not all.

"We are trying to do our best to tackle the problem," he said.

"Something has to be done before it spirals out of control"

The police statistics were released following the conviction of seven
people involved in a multi-million pound drugs network.

Ringleader Hassan Mohammed, from Newport, received a 10-year sentence on
Thursday, following Operation Tacit, which focused on the supply of Class A
drugs.

Those convicted at Cardiff Crown Court were handed a total of 38 years in
prison after being charged with conspiracy to supply heroin.

The convictions came after the biggest operation ever mounted by Gwent Police.

Operation Tacit, headed by Detective Inspector Steve Webber, was set up in
March 2000 and centred on the activities of a Somalian crime group in the
Newport area.

Hassan Mohammed was identified last year, and a number of his couriers and
suppliers were arrested.

"Operation Tacit used both conventional policing methods and covert
equipment," said Mr Webber.

Spreading problem

"It has been a long, hard enquiry but the pleas of guilty by all the
defendants and the sentences imposed on them reflects the way Gwent Police
carried out this enquiry." 11

Before 1995, the use of heroin in Gwent was generally limited to the
Newport and Abertillery areas but, by 1999, had spread to all of Gwent.

Between 1999 and mid 2001 there was one heroin-related death every
fortnight in Gwent.

Mr Jermiah said there were only two beds in the Gwent area to treat drug
addicts trying to come off the drugs.

"For victms trying to come off the drug there is a waiting list of nine
months," he said.

The drug gang convictions follow calls for a Royal Commission into the
possibility of legalising all drugs from North Wales Police Chief Constable
Richard Brunstrom.

Mr Brunstrom told his police authority that the war against drugs was being
lost and that perhaps the only way to beat the scourge was to legalise them.

In a controversial report he compared the UK policy on banning the sale and
possession of illegal drugs to that of America's alcohol prohibition in the
1920s and called for a Royal Commission to be set up to study the issue.

However, a Home Office spokeswoman said that, although no official reply to
the request for a Royal Commission, the message would be that the
government has no plans to set one up.