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Police blitz on dealers

Police have launched a blitz on drug crime in Goole to smash a narcotics ring orchestrated by criminals from Merseyside.

This week police launched simultaneous dawn raids in Goole and Liverpool at the homes of suspected drug-dealers.

The move, part of Operation Diamond, was aimed at smashing narcotics links between Goole and the north-west. Police say major dealers are infiltrating Goole from Merseyside and selling thousands of pounds' worth of drugs that make their way onto the streets of the town.

It is believed dealers from Liverpool have moved into Goole after the town's notorious 'Mr Big', Stephen Cleary, a violent career criminal and major drug dealer, was jailed for 11 years for running a drugs racket which netted him hundreds of thousands of pounds.

During this week's raids in Goole - at six homes in Sotheron Street, Marshfield Avenue, Broadway, Swinefleet Road and Manuel Street - suspects were roused from their beds at dawn and led away in cuffs. Six people were arrested in total and charged with various drug offences.

A simultaneous operation launched by Merseyside Police led to even more arrests and over 40 charges for alleged drug offences.

Following the raids, police lifted the lid on the new drugs menace in Goole posed by Merseyside criminals, who they say have "filled the void" left behind by Cleary.

Detective Chief Inspector Dave Rawding, of Humberside Police, said although there was a drug problem in Goole - the town was once dubbed "the drugs capital of the north" - it was no different from any other town or city in the UK.

He added, however, that - although all types of crimes in Goole had been reduced - drug offences continued to rise.

"What's happened in Goole in the last few years is that the drugs market has become unstable," he said.

He said Cleary had been "swept up" by good police intelligence but that Merseyside criminals were now looking for rich pickings in the area.

"The drugs market in Goole has become open to other people in the country, particularly people from Merseyside who have come in. This has led to a risk of violence which, unfortunately, goes along with Class A drugs."

He added that asset-stripping - where police seize the ill-gotten gains accumulated by criminals - as well as a number of "big sentences", were having an effect in teaching drug dealers and other criminals that "crime doesn't pay".

DCI Rawding was addressing over a hundred people - including the town mayor, Goole councillors, council officers and represenatives from various community groups - during a seminar at the East Riding Council offices on Charles Street, Goole. The seminar, which was held on Tuesday, had been arranged in the wake of the drugs raids.

At the meeting Detective Sergeant Phil North, of Humberside's Serious Crime Unit, explained how police had finally snared Cleary - but were now faced with just as big a challenge in removing the new threat posed by the Merseyside dealers.

He said: "Cleary was a career criminal who moved onto burglaries and then then the drugs market. He was bringing in drugs in his car from places like London and Sheffield and living off the back of the money of the people of Goole for many years."

As well as Cleary, suppliers and dealers connected to him were also jailed. They included Mohammed Zulficar of Sheffield, who was given six-and-a-half years, Cleary's runner Jeffrey Barker, who was given three years, as well as his girlfriend Lisa Oldridge, who was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Three others were given sentences totalling eight years.

Their arrests were part of an anti-drugs initiative called Operation Pisces which involved 60 officers nationally and thousands of documents.

Det Sgt North said: "One of the reasons we have been keen on this operation is to get people out of the drugs circle, full-stop. We've got to get people educated to get them out of that life cycle. Cleary was a great result but it left a void which people from Liverpool are exploiting."

Max Hough, the East Riding Council's crime and disorder reduction manager, said the drugs menace was "here and now", adding: "It's with us in Goole; it's not London, it's not Greater Manchester - it's Cowick, it's Goole."

As part of the bid to tackle the drug menace in Goole, police and the East Riding Council are about to launch an education blitz which will culminate in a Respect Action Week of enforcement and community liaison work in June.

To set the ball rolling thousand of leaflets will be delivered to residents in Goole with information on drugs and numbers to call to report suspicious activity and for extra help with drug treatment. The leaflets - called Tackling Drugs, Changing Lives - will also be delivered to schools in the area.

"We're going to pretty much every resident in Goole to explain what we have been doing and why," said Mr Hough. "We want to make people confident in reporting information."

He added: "It's difficult to predict what will happen in Goole as a result of that, but we want people to be confident in going to the police or Crimestoppers with whatever information they may have."

Mr Hough said the authority had been working with PCSOs to help people who may be vulnerable to drug-related crimes such as burglary and theft. A project called PROBE had also been launched to improve security in homes.

The Respect Action Week - part of the Government's Respect agenda - will be launched in Goole on June 30. The week will include over 20 different projects covering quality-of-life aspects in the town.

"We've got all this going on to make life better for the people of Goole," said Mr Hough. "I think there will be some really good things happen in that week. It should send a very strong message to the community."

Published on 22nd May 2008 in News.

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