Pubdate: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: 2003 Guardian Newspapers Limited Contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175 Author: Hugh Muir DRUG SUPPLY CHAIN TARGETED A new squad to catch the middlemen flooding London with cocaine, heroin and synthetic drugs has been launched by the police and Customs. Operation Middle Market aims to locate those who store, sell and distribute drugs once they have entered the country. Though producers and sellers have been heavily targeted in recent years, relatively little attention has been paid to the entrepreneurs who make the supply chain work. Some of these are hardened criminals, involved in gang and drug activity, but others are seemingly respectable business people. Police intelligence suggests that some middlemen run food outlets, property and import/export companies which act as fronts for their illegal activities. The new squad will represent the most sustained assault on the problem since the disbandment of the Metropolitan police drug squad in 1990. It will start off with between 40 and 50 officers. The unit extends the relationship formed between Customs and Scotland Yard during an investigation into the importation of drugs from Colombia. Last week that two-year operation culminated in the arrests of 12 people in London and 15 more in Colombia. Seventeen searches were conducted in residential addresses in north, south and east London. Eleven people have been charged with conspiracy to launder the proceeds of drugs. The Met commissioner, Sir John Stevens, said the arrests marked a step change in the way the force addressed the drug problem: "We are tackling the drug problem from where it emanates, in places like Jamaica and Colombia. "But those who think they can operate open drug markets in this city are in for a shock. There will be an absolute effort to stamp out this evil trade. "There is a sophisticated network but we understand the problem more than we have ever understood it before. We have followed it back to the countries where these people operate and we know the routes they use into this city." The assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffeur, head of specialist operations at Scotland Yard, said: "We are going to have a shared command team and a shared intelligence set-up. One of the biggest things we have learned is that some of these people are able to distribute large quantities of drugs and get the money out of the country very quickly." He said some overtly respectable types became middlemen because of family associations and the desire for easy and vast profits. One tactic will be to establish through intelligence people who are living above their means. A string of cases have highlighted the existence of large-scale operations in London. In May four members of a west London criminal gang were jailed for more than 20 years for serious drug and firearm offences. Brothers Sukhdev Singh Bassi, 26, and Rajinder Singh Bassi, 25, were convicted of supplying more than 25kg (55lb) of heroin in Southall, west London, and possessing an automatic handgun. Two other gang members were jailed. The brothers' cousin Jaspal Bassi, 34, who gave evidence against them, was freed and went into hiding. During one of the investigations, detectives found 1kg of heroin inside a child's rucksack. In January, Rebecca Atobrah, 49, of Gipsy Hill, south London, and seven accomplices were jailed for a total of 90 years. She used young girls to bring crack cocaine to Britain from Colombia. Figures released last week show that cocaine use is reaching epidemic proportions in the UK. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth +++++++