Pubdate: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 Source: Sunday Times (UK) Author: Stephen McGinty and Lucy Adamson Contact: HEROIN VICTIM, 13 'WAS DRUGS COURIER' THE 13-year-old boy who became Britain's youngest heroin victim was forced to deliver drugs around a Glasgow housing estate, according to residents. Allan Harper, who died of a heroin overdose five weeks ago, was bullied into making drug drops by a dealer on the Cranhill estate. The dealer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is understood to have used young boys and girls as look-outs and runners who carried heroin to neighbouring drug addicts and other dealers. The children, some as young as 11 or 12, were paid in cash or drugs by the dealer. One woman said: "It's just horrific, the children either got cash or drugs for doing the deliveries. This makes it almost impossible for parents to protect them. Temptation is put in their way." A neighbour also reported seeing Harper regularly arriving and leaving the dealer's flat. It is understood Harper was used by the dealer to deliver the drugs as he would not be suspected by police because of his youth. One man said: "Allan was exploited by this guy. He was used to drop off bags of smack [heroin] as nobody would suspect a boy like him. People think he started dabbling because of the running." Harper was found dead on January 3 in a top-floor flat in Startpoint Street, Cranhill, the home of Stephen Young, the former boyfriend of Harper's mother, Jacqueline Ford. Harper had died of a heroin overdose and his body had been partially eaten by Young's Japanese fighting dogs. The dealer responsible has since fled the estate after death threats from rival dealers, whose lucrative trade has been disrupted by the heavy police presence in the area. More than 76 arrests have been made and 100 drug offences reported since police began swamping the area after Harper's death. On Tuesday raids by Strathclyde police on houses in the Greater Easterhouse area, into which Cranhill falls, uncovered heroin, cannabis and temazepam with a street value of £500,000. A handgun has also been recovered. Louis Munn, chief superintendent of Greater Easterhouse, would not be drawn on any suggestions made against Harper, but said the police remained anxious to trace the drugs that killed him. He encouraged anyone with information to come forward. Ford reacted angrily yesterday to the suggestion that herson had been involved in the drugs trade. "This is the first I have heard of this. Allan would not do such a thing and if he did I would have known. People are talking and they don't know what they are saying. It is rubbish," she said. A group of mothers in Cranhill launched a campaign to reclaim their area from drug dealers and addicts with a candle-lit march on Thursday night. On the pavement a solitary figure, with a scarf covering his mouth and his fingers drawn into the shape of a gun, cocked and pushed against his head, delivered a warning to the women: "You're dead". Illuminated by candles and lanterns, mothers, grandmothers and sisters last week marched in silent protest against those who threatened their community, known as "smack city". The feeling was simple but unanimous: the time had come to fight back. "We're not scared any more of idiots," said Rose McKay, 40, a cleaner and mother of two, who dismissed the shadowy figure as she marched along the dark route. "Instead we want our homes back, we want the dealers out and our streets safe to walk along." They sought inspiration for the march from the women of Northern Ireland, where in the early 1990s an organisation united women on both sides of the religious divide to march for peace. Behind the scenes of the demonstrations two local women have been actively fighting to clean up their community, quietly tipping off police about dealers for the past year and a half. Angered by pushers hanging around schools and openly selling heroin in the streets, they have been having regular monthly meetings with Strathclyde police, health and social workers from Glasgow council and various other community organisations in order to pass on information. One woman who took part in the meetings was scared of the possible consequences. "I was frightened doing this," she said. "I would leave if I had the money. I'm not ashamed to say that if I had a choice I would stop this campaigning and get out of here. It's like living in a gangster movie." In order to avoid confrontation, men were not invited. Helen McGuiness, a 35-year-old mother of two, explained: "The worry was if men walked with us, someone might shout something nasty and they would react. "A fight would do us no good. We thought it would have more impact with just women and children." The women will now be pushing to change the law to allow anyone caught in possession of drugs to be evicted. The issues will be raised at a public meeting attended by residents, police, religious leaders and council officials tomorrow night. However, it is the children in their own streets whom they most wish to reach. During the march, a lanky youth in a baseball cap and designer jeans shrugged and laughed: "If the cops can't stop the dealers, what good is someone's ma?"