Police step up crackdown on drugs dealers with raids in Didcot (From Herald Series)

Police step up crackdown on drugs dealers with raids in Didcot

2:44pm Tuesday 9th June 2009

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POLICE swooped on four Didcot addresses today as they turned the screw on the town’s drug dealers.

The crackdown, which began shortly before 7am, saw 18 officers comb properties as part of Thames Valley Police’s Operation Falcon, which aims to tackle drugs and drug-related crime.

Teams of officers uncovered three possible cannabis plants at a greenhouse in Glebe Road and drugs paraphernalia associated with drug cultivation.

At a home in Portway, specialist search dog Zeus discovered what appeared to be skunk, hidden in a cardboard tube on a radiator.

Afterwards, police warned drug dealers and users they would be caught if they continued to break the law.

Sergeant Fraser Weller, of Didcot police, said: “It was an excellent day. We would love to come in and seize lots of drugs. But these are the addresses where people perceive the main dealers to be and we are trying to improve people’s quality of life.

“This type of enforcement offers reassurance to the community where this type of behaviour impacts on them. We act on information from the community. We are guided by the information that comes in. We will always seek to obtain a warrant through the magistrates court and then we can address whether there is a problem, or just a perception of a problem.”

Police have carried out 34 raids around South Oxfordshire in the past year.

Yesterday’s raids came in National Tackling Drugs Week. No drugs were seized from a first-floor flat in Laburnum Grove or a ground-floor apartment in Darenth Court, Hamble Road.

Speaking outside the Darenth Court address, Sgt Weller said: “We have had lots of issues with people’s quality of life here.

“We have had information from residents here and neighbours from the adjacent properties of people arriving on foot, the amount of cars coming here at speed, coming in and leaving. So for us to come in and do this, it’s really reassuring for the residents that we are trying to improve the quality of their lives. This raid was about disruption.”

A 34-year-old man was arrested from a house in Glebe Road on suspicion of possession and cultivation of a vegetable matter.

At Portway, a 36-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possessing and supplying a class-B drug.

Anyone with information about illegal drugs in Oxfordshire can contact police on 08458 505505 or ring the Crimestoppers line anonymously on 0800 555111.

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