GB News’ Ray Addison joined the police in Hillingdon, north west London as he filmed the operation
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There’s a strong smell of cannabis in the shabby block of flats despite the early hour.
Here in Hillingdon, north west London, the sun is barely up but someone is trying to get high before the day even begins.
Just a few metres away a dawn raiding party has gathered to enter the home of a man they suspect of selling Class A drugs.
The Met Police believe he’s the controller of a substantial London drug line. A loosely associated group including holders and runners serving over 100 users.
All of his alleged accomplices have already been arrested and now he’s about to get his own rude awakening.
Executing the search warrant the entry team force the door with a battering ram. It gives way under the pounding, but entry is slowed by a security chain which they are forced to cut away.
Inside the tiny one-bedroom flat the sole occupant has moved to the kitchen. Police say it’s common for suspects to try to get rid of product when they hear their door splintering.
On the living room table, officers find what they believe to be crack cocaine with an estimated street value of just under £3,000. There is also a slightly lesser quantity of heroin which was in the process of being cut up. Some have been made into wraps ready to be served in street deals to users in West London.
PC Kevin McLean warns the heroin could be laced with Nitazenes, a deadly synthetic opioid outlawed by the Government just this week.
They are known to have led to accidental overdoses and deaths in several areas across the UK.
“They're like 100 times stronger than morphine and fentanyl. Basically, when the heroin's laced with it, they're lethal.”
On the table officers find a burner phone which they suspect has been used as a drug line, sending bulk messages to users, and receiving orders.
The 29-year-old is arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs and taken to a nearby police station for questioning.
Detective Chief Inspector Erin Kerr, whose team are leading the investigation said: “This was obviously a continual process that he was undertaking himself, preparing the drugs ready for service.”
“We would call him the controller of this network. He's the one that's operating this line… They're often the men of violence. So, they're not just known for drug supply, but they're known for a lot of other violent offences that impact the community.”
Although the haul is relatively small in size, this type of arrest is the task force’s bread and butter.
It falls under ‘Operation Yamata’ where specialist teams use data to identify, locate and dismantle drug networks across the city and pursue the controllers who operate them.
It’s part of a bigger strategy to take those causing harm off the streets and end “the knock-on of violence, anti-social behaviour and exploitation,” in communities.
DCI Kerr says increasingly vulnerable adults and children are being forced to store and prepare the drugs.
“That's the real exploitation that we're starting to see across these drugs lines. They can sometimes be vulnerable adults that are users themselves or adults that are vulnerable for a different reason. Or it could be younger children that have been brought into the drug supply.”
DCI Kerr says the team has been operating for almost two years and shut down close to 1000 drug lines.
“Weekly, they will close around 8 to 10… So, we are putting men of violence in prison every week. And as you start to take individuals out you are then left with very few people. So, they tend to then have to fulfil all the roles themselves.”
She says today’s suspect was not previously known to prepare and sell the drugs but had been “left in quite a vulnerable position because of the activity from the investigation teams”.
It appears this type of targeted approach could be having a real impact.
“Before this operation got into play, drug supply was seen as a very low risk and high return career… But we’ve really turned that around and made it much more high risk and low value.”
At the flats, the stink of weed has now been joined by the smell of fried breakfasts which is making the raid team hungry.
They fit a new lock to the damaged door and prepare to leave when a phone starts ringing. The sound is tracked down to the bulging evidence bag and the burner phone. It rings and rings and rings.
Officers say although one more controller may be out of action, until that news filters down to the streets his suspected drug line will keep ringing off the hook.
