LONDON IS THE COCAINE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

New Met Taskforce Will Focus On 'Middle-Tier' Dealers, As MPs Are Set To
Recommend Downgrading Ecstasy And Cannabis

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 UKP10m 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 UKP120 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 UKP80 and UKP120 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