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Camden News - PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 30 October 2008

DRUGS RAID NETS £80,000 OF COCAINE

‘We’ll flood the streets with police to stop new dealers’

SUSPECTED cocaine dealers as young as 16 years old have been netted in an undercover police operation targeting Camden Town’s most notorious “Frontline” gangs.
Twelve people have been charged with supplying class A drugs after police swooped last week on 13 men and one woman who had been watched allegedly selling drugs in the streets around Camden Town Tube station for up to four months. The ages of those charged range from 16 to 39.
The New Journal understands the operation was launched to break the stranglehold of youth gangs including the ANC (African Nations Crew) and TMS (The Money Squad), whose members occupy the so-called “Frontline” running along Camden High Street and Chalk Farm Road.
More than a kilo of cocaine is believed to have been seized, with a potential street value of £80,000.
Senior officers pledged on Tuesday to flood Camden Town with extra police to stop drug dealers filling the vacuum created by these arrests.
CID chief Detective Superintendent Jeremy Burton said: “There will be a marked increase in high-visibility police patrols not only to deter offenders but to also reassure the community of our commitment to this operation.”
As the swoops took place, the council and police were also closing in on the conclusion
of their largest-ever mass-Asbo action.
The last of 14 Asbo cases begun in April against alleged members of the TMS gang, which police describe as engaged in “violent cannabis dealing”, will be heard at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court today (Thursday).
On Tuesday, the seventh, eighth and ninth members of the group were banned for two years from Camden Town.
District Judge Ian Baker told one of the 18-year-olds: “It is evident to me that people involved in the activities complained
of haven’t cared what people in authority have thought or done.
“Now you have this order... It is a serious matter that the police and the courts are taking seriously and ought to be taken seriously by you.”
One of the original 14, Sharma’arke Hassan, is dead. He was shot next to Regent’s Canal in May, and his murder is still unsolved.
Another is facing such a heavy prison sentence on other matters that police have abandoned the Asbo case.
The majority of defendants were under 18 when proceedings began. So far all have accepted the Asbos in “uncontested” hearings.

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