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Camden New Journal - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 16 August 2007

Trevor Jones caught on CCTV camera

Crack dealers jailed after cops swoop

Blow to drugs trade as three-month police operation ends in two being taken off the streets

THE crack cocaine market that attracts a daily queue of addicts to Camden Town has been dealt a “significant” blow by a covert police operation which led to two men being jailed for class A drugs offences while another 10 await trial.
Detectives spent three months tracking and snaring a series of suspected pushers. Their efforts resulted in Gary Reid, 41, and Trevor Jones, 33, both of no fixed abode, being jailed for a total of eight and a half years at Wood Green Crown Court.
Ten other suspects have been charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs, and will stand trial in January.
Jones was sentenced to three and a half years for supplying crack and heroin, while Reid received five years for offering to supply class A drugs and theft. Both men pleaded guilty.
While the aggressive cannabis market around Camden Lock and Camden High Street is well-recognised by authorities for its impact on visitors to the borough, the smaller and more secretive world of Camden Road’s crack cocaine dealers is largely felt by residents and businesses.
Addicts ‘queueing’ for drugs, and the discarded paraphernalia of crack use, are a common sight.
A combination of CCTV technology and old-fashioned detective work on the street led to the arrest of Jones in May at a spot outside William Hill’s betting shop in Camden Road that is well known to addicts in Camden Town, according to Detective Sergeant Sean Tuckey, who led the investigation.
He said: “One less dealer is always a good thing. But these arrests and this operation as a whole will clearly have a significant effect on the class A drugs market in Camden Town, and you would hope a knock-on effect on the criminality around that market.
“This was a covert police operation, and credit is due to Camden CCTV centre.
“These people know some of our methods, but it is always a case of outmanoeuvring them so that they never know when we might be operating there.”
Reid, who was generally known as Michael Robinson, was already serving a sentence for cannabis-related offences when police had gathered enough evidence from the operation to press charges.

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