London is the cocaine capital of the world

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The Independent

New Met taskforce will focus on 'middle-tier' dealers, as MPs are set to recommend downgrading ecstasy and cannabis

By Sophie Goodchild, Home Affairs Correspondent

19 May 2002

London is now the cocaine capital of the world with drug squads failing to curb the flow of the drug into Britain, according to the head of the Metropolitan police's drug directorate.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mike Fuller, one of the Met's highest-ranking officers, blamed London's financial institutions for fuelling the market and called for more compulsory drug testing in City firms.

"We are aware the heaviest users are people in the City. A lot of the drug dealers can get more 'bangs for their bucks'. Workplace testing would make people tackle their addiction," he said.

United Nations figures show that cocaine use is declining across the rest of the world and Britain's flourishing cocaine market is a worrying blip.

Next month, the Metropolitan Police will unveil plans for a new taskforce dedicated to seizing the assets of dealers in hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. As many as 70 detectives and financial investigators will use intelligence techniques to bring middle-tier drug dealers to justice.

The Met taskforce will also use the latest forensic-science techniques to track down drug barons. Each haul of drugs seized by officers has its own "DNA", a unique chemical identity that can be used to determine the source of the drug.

Senior-ranking Met officers consider economic penalties a more effective deterrent than sending dealers to prison.

Last year, officers in London seized more than £10m worth of assets belonging to drug dealers, a figure expected to double this year.

DAC Fuller said the Met should be allowed to plough these proceeds from crime directly back into drugs education instead of handing them over to the Treasury.

"The dealers have far greater resources than we have but we can have an impact with sustained funding. You are up against dealers who have got tremendous resources; they are cunning and not worried about international boundaries. Whatever techniques we adopt, they will be quick to defeat them," said DAC Fuller.

DAC Fuller has drawn up the Met's three-year drugs strategy which will be published next month. Under this, prolific drug users involved in crime will be first in line for treatment and every police station will have a drugs worker to refer users to treatment.

Alleyways used by addicts to take drugs will also be shut off and gated, and special emergency response teams will be set up to dispose of the needles discarded by heroin junkies.

"The focus for us is very much on crack cocaine and heroin. Cannabis is a distraction. We are focusing on drugs which have a social impact," he added.

However, DAC Fuller warned that declassifying cannabis could lead to a rise in teenage users developing a psychological dependency on the drug. "In Jamaica there are street kids with a psychological addiction to marijuana," he said. "They are dependent and you get kids stealing to fund their habit. This is not as big an issue yet [here] but I think it will become so. You will see a younger population using cannabis and experimenting off the back of declassification."

City lads spend £120 a week on 'Charlie'

Things aren't quite as bad as they were a year and a half ago. But we still reckon at about twice a week on average. It's available in all the old places – bars and clubs, especially round the City. But people haven't got quite as much cash to throw around any more.

"It tends to work that we will buy some towards the end of the evening if we've been having a session and need the energy to move on to a club. We'd spend between £80 and £120 a week." – Broker in his late twenties

"The law firms have been cracking down very hard on this sort of thing. Most of us will only use coke at the weekends – even then we're much more careful than we used to be." – City solicitor in his mid-twenties

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