editorial comment Maybe the good officer who tries to save us should think one day that these crimes are fed by the laws he's enforcing....

One of the posters showing the victims of drug crime.
This shocking image is the police's latest weapon in the ongoing fight to rid the streets of Norfolk of drug-dealers.

Three stark posters will be launched on Monday to show the effects of drug-dealing and drug-taking on people in the county.

The posters follow the success of Operation Abolish, which saw 24 dealers sentenced to nearly 100 years' imprisonment for heroin and crack cocaine trafficking offences.

Now police are vowing to keep up the pressure with their new campaign, a partnership with Crimestoppers, called Another Victim of Drug Crime.

The campaign aims to educate people about the spiralling effect of drug- dealing on crime levels in their community - and asks for their help in gathering intelligence via the anonymous Crime-stoppers telephone number.

Det Chief Insp Barry Lister, who heads the drug and serious crime squad, said: "Operation Harrier has been a great success; it is the way we do our business reducing crime by putting the fear of crime back into the criminal.

"You only have to look at recent crime figures - house burglaries are down by more than 860 incidents, car crime is down by more than 2300 cases and robberies are down by 120 offences - to see that it is working, making Norfolk a safer place to live.

"Harrier and Crimestoppers is a successful partnership and this campaign is an excellent opportunity to keep the pressure on the dealers and put them out of business."

Det Chief Insp Lister added that police had also successfully targeted heroin and crack cocaine dealers, with up to 60 dealers from Liverpool arrested to date.

Last week, a Liverpool man was sentenced to three and a half years' for bringing cocaine into Norfolk. He was arrested at Norwich railway station.

Det Chief Insp Lister said: "Two months ago, at that same station, you would have seen groups of drug addicts, burglars, car thieves and robbers queuing up round telephone kiosks waiting for their dealers to sell them heroin and crack. All of these dealers are now locked up."

But he warned there were "still more dealers out there", and said: "These dealers exist in every town across Norfolk.

back | to top | full article >>