Police chief issues drugs 'wake-up call'

A massive rise in the availability of hard drugs threatens to give south Wales the serious crime problems once experienced in New York, a senior police officer warned yesterday.

Sir Anthony Burden, the Chief Constable of South Wales, said drugs gangs were moving in. "The New York of old will be the streets of south Wales if we don't wake up the growing menace of heroin and cocaine use in our communities," he said. "We have got to act quickly and we have got to take this problem very seriously. Heroin and cocaine use is already ripping our communities apart.

"The scale of violence, the volume of crime and the gun culture that goes with the organised crime territory could destroy them completely." He said officers in Bristol facing a similar influx saw "a complete change in the complexion of their city" in just two weeks. Sir Anthony added: "This is a wake-up call. I am extremely concerned about the amount of heroin, crack and cocaine coming into the country."

He said gangs flooded the market to drive down prices and hook as many youngsters as possible before moving in. In the 10 months to February heroin seizures were up by 84 per cent and arrests for supplying were up by 83 per cent. In one police division, drug-related deaths were running at one a week.