Pubdate: Tue, 25 Jun 2002
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author: Ian Burrell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

CRACK TRADE 'IS BREEDING EXTRAORDINARY VIOLENCE'

Crack cocaine is responsible for "quite extraordinary" levels of violence 
in some of Britain's black communities, a Home Office minister said yesterday.

Addressing a government "crack summit", Bob Ainsworth said turf wars over 
the lucrative trade in some cities had created a "problem that cannot be 
ignored". The warning came as government officials, police chiefs and 
treatment specialists gathered in Birmingham to tackle the spread of the 
highly-addictive drug.

Some experts attending the event attacked the Government for focusing its 
attention on one part of the population, and said crack was no longer just 
an inner-city drug.

Aidan Gray, of the Conference on Crack and Cocaine, said most crack users 
were white and the drug was increasingly found in suburban and rural areas.

He said: "There are massive changes going on and the spread is right across 
the board. It's predominantly an urban problem but we are seeing a lot of 
use in semi-urban areas and also rural areas." Mr Gray said crack users 
were increasingly making the drug themselves from cocaine powder, rather 
than buying the more expensive crystals from dealers.

He said the cocaine-derivative was being smoked in Scotland and Plymouth, 
far away from the so-called Yardie gangs that have been linked to the worst 
crack turf wars.

Mr Ainsworth told delegates at the conference that he was concerned by the 
activities of Jamaican gangs which dominate the crack trade at street level 
in cities such as London and Bristol. Specialist police teams have been set 
up to combat the problem.

He said: "Everything I have been told from Customs, Operation Trident in 
London and Operation Atrium in Bristol, would suggest to me that a high 
proportion of crack cocaine that is manufactured in this country is 
manufactured from cocaine that has come via Jamaica."

He added: "We need to try and disrupt the gangs that are controlling that 
supply and are responsible for a large proportion of the conversion into 
crack. So it is a problem that cannot be ignored."

Mr Ainsworth warned that crack use was spreading outwards from London and 
said poor communities were most at risk. "The black community does have a 
problem. The levels of violence within the black community are quite 
extraordinary." He said that where communities had given information to 
police, there had been "substantial successes in disrupting the supply and 
organisations of crack cocaine dealers".

Home Office figures released last month revealed that, compared with 1999, 
there was an 8 per cent rise is seizures of crack cocaine in 2000. During 
the same period the courts in England and Wales dealt with a 7 per cent 
rise in crack-related offences.

The Home Office said the aim of the conference was to bring together 
communities most at risk from the effects of crack cocaine in a campaign to 
limit the damage.
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