‘No evidence’ found of rogue drug
A health expert has said no evidence has been found yet that a purer form or contaminated batch of heroin was to blame for the deaths of five people.
A critical incident group has been set-up in response to the deaths in Inverness during September.
John Glenday, of Highland Drug and Alcohol Action Team, said users should avoid taking a combination of substances, which increases risk.
He added: “There is no safe way to inject illicit drugs.”
‘Toxicological evidence’
Northern Constabulary and the Procurator Fiscal Service are investigating the five deaths, which police said may be drug-related.
Mr Glenday, the action team’s harm reduction coordinator, said those misusing drugs should take precautions regardless of whether there was perceived to be an increased danger.
He said: “We want people to take precautions in every instance rather than think maybe there is a rogue batch or batch of purer strength.
“We don’t have any evidence at the moment that is the case.”
Mr Glenday said injecting users were a “real cause for concern” and advice to them centred around making them aware of the risks of taking a combination of drugs.
Action team chairwoman Jaci Douglas added: “The Highland Drug and Alcohol Action Team is constantly working to extend the range and accessibility of services for drug users in Highland.
“Details of the full range of services available can be found on our website www.hdaat.org.uk.”
A police statement said: “The critical incident group is being convened, with representatives of Northern Constabulary, the Procurator Fiscal Service and NHS Highland, to look at the circumstances of each death, pending full information being provided by way of pathological and toxicological evidence.
“In the meantime Northern Constabulary and the Procurator Fiscal Service would wish to endorse the advice which has already been provided by NHS Highland through the Highland Drug and Alcohol Action Team to injecting drug users.”
Babysitter ‘thanked’ with drugs
A woman who gave speed to her 14-year-old babysitter as a “thank you” has been placed on probation for two years.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard how Julie Ann Kaney, 33, got the schoolgirl to lick the class-B drug as a reward for looking after young children.
The teenage girl had initially refused to take the powder but Kaney “kept on at her” until she took it.
Kaney admitting supplying the drug in June last year. The sheriff said he would monitor her progress.
The court was told that after offering the girl a small amount, Kaney had emptied a £10 bag of the drug into the girl’s hand and instructed her to lick it.
Sheriff William Gallacher made the interim order placing Kaney on probation but also set a special sentencing hearing for mid-November to review her progress.
He told her that if she was doing well on probation, he would spare her jail.
The sheriff said: “The charge you pled guilty to is very serious indeed. To be involved in the supply of drugs to a child is a very serious matter and you should be under no illusions that I am considering custody for it.
“But it is up to you. If when you come back to court in November you have complied with the order, then I will consider community service.”
‘No illusions’
Catriona Steele, prosecuting, said the case came to light after the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, looked after children at an address in Milton Gardens in Stirling.
The depute fiscal said: “The accused and her sister left the house but returned earlier than expected.
“The accused went into her purse and took out a small, clear bag containing a white powder.
“She told the girl it was ’speed’ and asked her if she wanted some.
“The girl said no, but the accused kept on at her until she said she would take some.”
The girl later told her sister what had happened, who then told their father who contacted police.
When interviewed, Kaney admitted possessing the drug which she bought in £10 bags.
Kaney, of Mayfield Court, Stirling, pleaded guilty to supplying amphetamine to the girl on one occasion between June 1 and June 30 last year.
Defence solicitor Frazer McCready said his client was “under no illusions” that if she did not comply with the probation order, she would be going straight to Cornton Vale
Colombia drugs war exodus ‘rises’
Armed groups forced at least 270,000 Colombians to flee their homes in the first half of this year, a report by a local human rights group says.
The group, Codhes, says this figure represents a 41% increase on 2007.
Rebels, paramilitaries and drug gangs are all forcing people from their land as they fight for land to grow cocaine, according to Codhes.
But the government disputes the figures, saying the number of displaced people, while worrying, is falling.
According to Codhes, the Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement, the increase in the number of internally-displaced people in Colombia is the highest since 1985.
The group says 270,675 people were forced from their homes in the first six months of 2008, a 41% jump on the same period last year.
One of the main causes, Codhes believes, is the struggle for control of land for illicit drug cultivation, and the rearming of paramilitary fighters.
Codhes also says that rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) have suffered significant blows this year.
But the rights group says the guerrillas still operate in various regions, where they threaten the civilian population and carry out forced recruitment, particularly of minors.
Fraud
The Colombian government has rejected the figures produced by Codhes, arguing that the number of people being displaced is actually falling.
According to government figures, 110,000 people were forced from their homes in the first half of 2008.
“Although the figures regarding displacement are highly worrying and justify the important efforts the government is making to tackle the problem, they are a far cry from the almost apocalyptic account portrayed by Codhes in its statistics,” a government statement said.
Officials challenged the way Codhes compiled its figures, which included, they said, people taking part in marches against forced eradication of the coca crop.
The government statement also pointed to what it said was fraud in the registering of displaced people.
The Colombian authorities put the total number of displaced people at more than 2.5 million.
Codhes believes the real number may be nearer four million, saying many of those forced from their homes do not report it to the authorities as they are threatened by the warring factions.
£175,000 of drugs found in bush
Police in Plymouth have recovered a rucksack containing about £175,000-worth of amphetamine after two men were spotted throwing it into a bush.
People living in Collin Close in St Budeaux contacted police after they saw a van arrive at speed and the occupants throw the rucksack before running off.
DC Esther Nodding said: “This is a substantial seizure of drugs.”
She asked anyone who saw a white Ford flatbed or the two white men running from it to contact police.
One was wearing a white baseball cap.
DJ jailed for supplying cocaine
A nightclub disc jockey who supplied cocaine and cannabis to a small circle of friends has been jailed for a year.
James Clegg, 22, from Newtown, Powys admitted possessing the drugs with intent to supply.
Mold Crown Court heard Clegg was a drug user and had started to supply to his friends, who were also users.
Recorder Lord Kingsland QC was told Clegg had changed his life, but he said the case was too serious for a suspended sentence.
Lord Kingsland said he appreciated Clegg had since changed his life and no longer went out, and remained at home with his pregnant partner.
Andrew Clarke, prosecuting, said police seized cocaine with an estimated street value of up to £1,400 and cannabis with a value of £150, following a search of Clegg’s home.
Club scene
A total of £520 was also confiscated under The Proceeds of Crime Act.
Oliver King, defending, said Clegg had no previous convictions.
At the time of his arrest he had been a disc jockey and drugs had been part of the club scene.
Mr King said Clegg started taking drugs himself and then started supplying a small number of friends who were already users.
He added that Clegg had since disassociated himself with the club scene and his drug using friends.
Prison smuggling trio are jailed
Three men have been jailed for a total of 12 and a half years for conspiracy to supply drugs and mobile phones at Swaleside Prison in Kent.
Prison worker Christopher Hill, 22, of Anne Boleyn Close, Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey, was sentenced to five years.
His twin brother, asbestos remover Richard Hill, 22, of Unity Street, Sheerness, got three and a half years.
Tyrone Woolley, 27, who is a serving a life sentence at Swaleside, was given four years at Maidstone Crown Court.
The three defendants admitted the charges at a previous hearing.
Smuggled items
Kent Police and the Prison Service launched a joint investigation in December 2007 after drugs and mobile phones were found hidden in a box of washing powder in a secure storage cage in Swaleside Prison.
More drugs and banned items were found in a loaf of bread due to be delivered to Swaleside in Janurary 2008.
Kent Police said Richard Hill arranged for the drugs and banned items to be collected from sources outside the prison, his brother Christopher smuggled them into the jail and Woolley received them.
Det Insp Thomas Richards said: “I am proud that the commitment and expertise of my team has resulted in the demise of a significant criminal network, prevented drugs and other banned items entering the prison system and resulted in today’s sentence.
“I also want to pay tribute to members of the Prison Service’s Security Department with whom we worked closely and collaboratively throughout.
“The sentence sends a very strong message to criminals and would-be offenders that crime doesn’t pay and we will catch you and bring you before the courts.”
‘Corruption tackled’
Acting governor of HMP Swaleside Martin Glaze said: “I am proud of my security department and the professional manner in which they dealt with this complex and sensitive matter.
“Keeping drugs out of prisons helps them to run more smoothly and allows prisoners to engage more effectively with treatment and other interventions.
“The vast majority of Prison Service staff are honest, hardworking and professional.
“The Prison Service seeks to create and support a culture that values integrity and tackles corruption and dishonesty wherever it is found.”
Turkmen violence ‘drug related’
Authorities in Turkmenistan say they have “neutralised” a gang of drug traffickers in a security operation overnight in the capital Ashgabat.
The statement contradicted earlier media reports that security forces had been engaged in heavy gun battles with Islamist militants.
Some reports said at least 20 police officers had died in the fighting.
The claims are extremely difficult to confirm, as Turkmenistan is one of the world’s most tightly controlled states.
‘Sealed off’
The Central Asian nation borders Afghanistan to the east and is a known route for the global heroin trade.
In what analysts said was a rare confirmation of unrest in the ex-Soviet republic, the Turkmen foreign ministry said in a statement that “a criminal group involved in the illegal drug trade” had been “neutralised”.
The ministry did not say whether there were any casualties, or if any traffickers had been detained.
Foreign media organisations earlier said that Islamic militants were involved in the fighting, though the ministry made no reference to this.
The neighbourhood where the fighting took place, in Ashgabat’s northern suburbs, was sealed off until Sunday morning, an AFP reporter said.
Drug dogs head to shopping centre
Tayside Police dogs are honing their drug-sniffing skills at a shopping centre in Perth.
The animals will be trained to detect the illegal substances while people go about their day-to-day business at the St. John’s Centre.
Signs will be put up in the mall advising people when the exercises are taking place.
Training is already held at places like the Odeon cinema, Tesco’s distribution warehouse and a self storage firm.
PC Ron Anderson, the force’s dog training instructor, said: “Police dogs play an ever increasing role in policing within the community, so training in public areas is essential to hone the dog’s skills and equip both them and their handlers to deal with incidents in all types of environments.
“Of course, should our dog handlers come across anyone committing a criminal offence, they will deal with it as they would any other crime.”
Siobhan McConnell, manager of the St John’s Shopping Centre, added: ”This is a proactive initiative that will reassure retailers and law abiding visitors to St John’s Shopping Centre that we are committed to ensuring this is a safe and pleasant place to shop.
“We will not tolerate the use or the possession of illegal narcotics on our premises and are pleased to work in partnership with Tayside Police in respect of this.”
Drugs found in luggage at airport
Up to six kilos (13.2lbs) of cocaine have been seized at Birmingham Airport.
Customs officers said the drugs, with an estimated value of £270,000, were found on Friday in luggage from a flight from Duala, Cameroon, via Paris.
A male Dutch national was remanded in custody by magistrates in Solihull accused of the illegal importation of class A drugs, the spokesman added.
It is the third seizure of the drug by customs officers at the airport in the past 12 days.
John Theobald, senior investigation officer for HM Revenue and Customs, said: “This further haul of class A drugs this month shows the success of our operations to stem the flow of drugs reaching the streets of the West Midlands.”
Pair remanded over £5m drugs haul
Two men have appeared in court after 100kg of cocaine, with an estimated street value of £5m, was seized from a yacht off the coast of Cornwall.
Douglas Wood, 58, of Sandwich Bay, Kent, and David Coxon, 52, of Newcastle, were remanded in custody at Greenwich Magistrates’ Court.
The men, who face several drug trafficking charges, will appear in court again on 22 September.
The yacht Ronin was en-route from the Caribbean when it was stopped.
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) operation involved officers from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca), who were assisted by the Devonport-based Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll.
The British-registered Ronin was taken to secure docks in Plymouth for forensic examination.
A 42-year-old man has been bailed to return to a London police station on a date in October.
Major crack cocaine gang jailed
Police have said smashing a major drug dealing gang in Middlesbrough prevented a violent turf war.
The five major players of the “Donna Network” crack cocaine gang were jailed for a total of 27 years at Teesside Crown Court on Monday.
London-based leader Albert “Papa” Thoms was sentenced to 10 years after admitting conspiracy to supply drugs.
Detectives said the £1m-a-year profit gang could have caused a bloody gun war with local gangsters.
The gang, whose members were mainly Jamaican nationals, were named the “Donna Network” after police repeatedly found the name in local drug addicts’ mobile phones.
London-based leader Albert “Papa” Thoms was sentenced to 10 years after admitting conspiracy to supply drugs.
Detectives said the £1m-a-year profit gang could have caused a bloody gun war with local gangsters.
The gang, whose members were mainly Jamaican nationals, were named the “Donna Network” after police repeatedly found the name in local drug addicts’ mobile phones.
“As time progressed it was inevitable that there would have been turf wars and increased violence.”
He said police had taken out a number of middle-level dealers to see if those higher up the chain would fill the vacuum.
Thoms, 32, and other members took the bait, sending couriers from Kings Cross on the East Coast Mainline.
He hoped to make Middlesbrough a hub from which to control the supply of crack cocaine to the North East of England.
Members were put under surveillance and arrested in nationwide raids in April last year.
Thoms’ second in command Lloyd Ormsby, 33, from Kimberley House, Galbraith Street, London, was jailed for seven years for conspiracy to supply drugs.
Major dealers Wycliffe Clarke, 37, of Briggeford Close, London, and Marcus Steadman, 30, who was an escapee from HMP Sudbury at the time of the operation, were jailed for four years each.
Three Jamaican nationals, were handed community order sentences for their lesser roles in the conspiracy.
Man facing £14,000 drugs charges
A man has been charged with drugs offences after cannabis worth an estimated £14,200 was seized in County Armagh.
It was found during a police search of a house in the Ardowen area of Craigavon on Thursday.
The 36-year-old has been charged with possession of a class C drug, possession with intent to supply and the cultivation of a class C drug.
He is to appear at Craigavon Magistrates Court on 3 October.
Cannabis worth £16,000 seized
Cannabis plants with an estimated street value of £16,000 have been seized by police in Portstewart.
Twenty-two plants were discovered during a search of a house on Flowerfield Road in the town on Saturday.
No arrests were made and police are continuing their inquiries into the find.
Raid on drugs factory ‘with gym’
An anonymous tip-off has led to the discovery of a cannabis factory in Nottinghamshire containing 3,000 plants with a street value of £3m.
Officers raided a former chicken factory on Barrows Hill Lane in Jacksdale where they also found electrical equipment worth £250,000.
Police described the factory as a “sophisticated set-up”, containing living quarters complete with a gym.
Seven men, aged between 20 and 48, have been arrested.
The men are currently in police custody following the raid on Wednesday afternoon.
‘Huge scale’
Ch Insp Mark Wakeland said: “One attending officer who has executed drugs warrants for the past seven years said it was the biggest and most sophisticated set-up he had ever seen.
“Cannabis plants were being grown on an industrial scale across the factory floor - a huge space roughly 50m (164ft) long by 25m (82ft) wide.”
He added it was “an immensely professional operation”.
Officers acted on information received anonymously via Crimestoppers.
Drugs general’s fall from power
Fast cars, sharp suits and a multi-million pound property portfolio - it sounds like a classic British gangster movie.
But the life of convicted Nottinghamshire “drugs general” Gary Hardy was far from fiction.
On Thursday, Hardy was found guilty of supplying heroin and amphetamines and laundering his profits through a string of made-to-measure businesses.
And Hardy kept it in the family, using his crack addict brother Paul to deal vast quantities of drugs worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The family connection did not end there - their mother, June Muers, 67, helped Paul deal drugs out of her home in Kirkby-in-Ashfield.
And Paul’s ex-partner Zoe Chapman, 29, would courier drugs to clients in her children’s pushchair.
All were found guilty of drugs offences at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday.
During the course of the trial, Gary Hardy, 45, was described as one of three drugs generals, with a huge multi-million pound drugs empire, who ran part of the north Nottinghamshire patch.
He shared the area with two other dealers, John Dawes and his brother Rob, to avoid a turf war.
John Dawes is currently three years into a 24-year prison sentence for supplying Class A and B drugs.
His brother Rob was arrested in Dubai in May on an international arrest warrant issued by the Spanish authorities in connection with drugs charges.
For every kilogram of heroin sold every seven to 10 days, the Dawes brothers and Hardy would make £8,000 profit each.
Running his turf with violence, fear and intimidation, the court heard that Gary Hardy and his family were notorious in the area, outwardly enjoying all the trappings of wealth from “successful businesses”.
School fees
Between 2001-07, Hardy was the registered keeper of 90 vehicles, not all at the same time, but nevertheless expensive, luxury cars.
When he was arrested, he had 16 finance agreements on the cars, valued at £904,000, with monthly repayments reaching £15,200.
He would “sell” these cars on to his employees, taking instalments from them and hanging onto the log books until payments had been made, laundering his drugs cash.
He had a brand new home, and would pay his children’s private school fees in cash, yet had several failed businesses.
Hardy was already under surveillance when a drug deal went wrong on 29 April 2003, but that failed deal ensured Nottinghamshire Police finally got some key evidence and signed up a number of witnesses to testify against him.
Their following investigation looked closely into the accounts from companies he owned or was involved with.
When fraud accountants went through Hardy’s Apex Windows’ accounts, they found in 2003, more than £1m went out on wages - a 148% increase on the previous year, but sales only rose by 34%.
Employees on the books included Paul Hardy, although witnesses said he never did a day’s work there.
Det Ch Insp Stewart Bradley who led the investigation, said: “He was a major player. The Hardy drugs group is what we would class as an organised crime group.
“Gary Hardy had a network of people underneath him, prepared to do the work for him and he remained, as was described, a general with a number of lieutenants and perhaps what you would describe as soldiers working on the ground.
“In his elevated position, he was able to keep away from the hands-on drugs himself and dealt mainly with the money. And that money ran into millions.”
He said some witnesses who gave evidence were so frightened they left the area and never returned.
Spaghetti pot
The court heard one tell how a man was beaten and stabbed at one of Gary Hardy’s garages as he failed to pay a drugs debt.
On the day of the Hardy arrests on 4 January 2007, police found drugs with a street value of almost £70,000 and £16,000 in cash stashed all over June Muers’ house, including in a spaghetti pot in the kitchen.
Ch Insp Barry Harper from the drugs directorate said: “I think Gary Hardy did a lot of damage to the community.
“By flooding this area with drugs, it caused untold amounts of damage to people.”
During the trial, in trying to justify how he kept up his flashy lifestyle when businesses were failing, Hardy maintained his car and window companies became “too successful” and had to be put into liquidation.
He had a portfolio of about 40 properties in north Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
One witness claimed most of the properties were empty and the money was laundered through rent books.
Not a single receipt was recovered for the rents paid, a point Hardy failed to clear up during the trial.
Now the process of untangling Hardy’s assets has begun, as officers have started to try to recover his ill-gotten gains through the Proceeds of Crime Act.
‘Drugs general’ man found guilty
A Nottinghamshire businessman described as a “drugs general” has been found guilty of running a major drugs network.
Gary Hardy, 45, from The Copse, Mansfield, was found guilty by a jury at Nottingham Crown Court.
His brother Paul Hardy, 47, and his mother June Muers, 67, have also been convicted of drugs offences.
Paul Hardy’s partner Zoe Chapman, 29, was also found guilty of drugs offences.
Another defendant Carl Busby, 46, was found not guilty of a charge of money laundering.
The jury had heard Gary Hardy lived a lavish lifestyle funded by dealing drugs and laundering the illegal profits.
He was the head of a family business that supplied heroin and amphetamines to dealers in two of Nottinghamshire’s former mining towns, Sutton-in-Ashfield and Kirkby-in-Ashfield.
During the trial the court heard Gary Hardy ran several unsuccessful businesses yet continued to live a lavish lifestyle.
He put his brother Paul, from Kirkby-in-Ashfield, along with other associates, on the books to pay them for illegal drug activities.
The jury heard heroin - hidden in lorry tyres - was smuggled into the country and for every kilo sold on the streets Gary Hardy made £8,000.
Defending Gary Hardy, Trevor Burke said he was a “flamboyant, successful” property businessman, who was a victim of the “politics of envy”, and that his client was in the dock because people were jealous of his success.
Prosecutor Richard Latham QC told the court Gary Hardy was a drugs “general” behind the operation who owned several Porsches, Mercedes and Ferraris and paid private school fees in cash.
Gary Hardy was caught after a drugs handover in a car park was traced to his mobile phone - he had been under surveillance.
Det Ch Insp Stewart Bradley from Nottinghamshire Police said: “He probably thought he was untouchable - the general with a number of lieutenants and perhaps what you could describe as soldiers working on the ground.
“The moneys ran into millions. He’d been able to keep away from hands on with the drugs himself.”
The court heard he used his crack addict brother Paul to deal vast quantities of drugs. Paul Hardy was found guilty of supplying drugs.
Their mother June Muers, 67, helped Paul deal drugs out of her home in Kirkby-in-Ashfield. She was convicted of supplying amphetamine and cannabis.
And Paul’s ex-partner Zoe Chapman, 29, would courier drugs to clients in her children’s pushchair. She was found guilty of supplying amphetamine.
All four will be sentenced next month.
Australian police bust drugs ring
Australian police say they have busted an international drugs ring and seized what they describe as the largest single haul of the drug ecstasy.
Sixteen people were arrested across Australia, with further raids expected in Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy.
It follows a year-long investigation after 15 million ecstasy pills were found hidden in a shipping container that arrived in Melbourne from Italy.
The tablets had an estimated street value of about A$450m (US$400m; £200m).
The ecstasy - a banned amphetamine with mild hallucinogenic properties - was found by Australian customs officers hidden in tins of tomatoes in a shipping container in June 2007.
The pills were replaced with a harmless substitute and the delivery was tracked, police say.
‘No soft target’
The breakthrough came when another shipment of 150kg of cocaine arrived in Australia last month, which led to the raids across several countries.
In Canberra, Attorney-General Robert McClelland said Australia had shown it was not a soft target for drug smugglers - that view, he insisted, has been “well and truly” smashed.
The syndicate was believed to be responsible for 60% of illegal drug imports in to southern Australia.
Local newspaper reports have suggested that among those targeted by the police were Australians allegedly linked to the Calabrian mafia in the New South Wales fruit-growing town of Griffith, as well as others associated with an outlawed motorcycle gang.
Ecstasy dealer gets jail sentence
A drug dealer in the Scottish Borders has been jailed for a total of two years and four months.
Arthur Collin, 38, of Eyemouth, admitted being concerned in the supply of ecstasy and amphetamines at his home in Church Street in May.
At Jedburgh Sheriff Court, he also admitted being in possession of cocaine when police officers raided his home.
Sheriff Kevin Drummond said Collin would have been jailed for 42 months but for his guilty plea.