| |
Karen Buck MP |
NEW FRONT IN THE ‘WAR’ ON DRUG DEALERS
MP hails special police team to tackle ‘crack supermarket’
POLICE have declared war on a notorious drug dealing hotspot – branded a “crack supermarket” by MP Karen Buck – giving it a larger police presence than any neighbourhood in the capital.
No bigger than a square mile, the Prince of Wales Junction in Paddington – colloquially known as “drug deal junction” – will be assigned a permanent police team in an unprecedented step.
Superintendent Peter Newman, who will recruit the seven-strong team to the area, vowed to “win back” the area long abandoned to the dealers.
Addicts can “score” a rock of crack cocaine for just £5 at the busy five-way junction which has been compared to the blighted street corners of Baltimore depicted in the hit TV series The Wire.
The move has been hailed as a victory by Ms Buck, who has campaigned for action since standing on the corner and watching dealers queueing up to sell their product in broad daylight in 2000.
The junction, on the corner of Harrow Road and Elgin Avenue, has long been one of the most prolific and intractable drugs markets in London, favoured because of its reputation as a police blind spot at the confluence of three boroughs.
Now in addition to the nine members of the Safer Neighbourhoods team, the area covering just over a square mile will have a permanent team made up of one sergeant and six constables.
Ms Buck, Labour MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington North, said: “This is really significant. The junction has frankly been a crisis area for a long time.
“Lambeth and Hackney might have bigger drugs problems, but for such a tiny area, there is nowhere else like it.
“I have always had faith in the police but we have always been fighting against the tide. Every time there were arrests, new dealers would come in and claim their territory.”
Two weeks ago an 88-year-old woman was attacked at the junction, sparking outrage from residents who called an emergency public meeting at the Elgin estate on Monday.
While drugs offences, which are only recorded when an arrest is made, are down 7 per cent in the past month, they have leapt a whopping 65 per cent over the past year.
Supt Newman, based at Paddington Green Station, added: “For such a small area this is a major step. We need to claim back the street from the dealers because it has been a revolving door for too long.
“There is so much money involved and it will always be profitable unless we step up and do something. Dealers come to the area because of the road network and they can work under the cover of traffic.
“Covert operations are all well and good but the public don’t know about them and this is about restoring the faith in policing and being a visible presence in the area.” |
 |
|
|
| |
| |
