The Message Is Not Getting Across Christmas will never be the same for the family of Kerry-Ann Kirk, the youngest drugs victim in Scotland this year; nor for the families of the six others who have died over the festive period after taking drugs. The oldest of these victims was in his thirties; the others were in their twenties. These deaths, as has been the case in so many this year, are a terrible waste of unfulfilled life. The West of Scotland, whose drug-related deaths are meticulously recorded by Strathclyde Police, has a crisis on its hands. Only two years ago Strathclyde had 51 drugs deaths. 1999's figures are only a little short of three times that total. And the year is not out yet. [continues 347 words]
A LEADING health manager has called for detailed research into the cause of the spiralling drug problem, following a spate of deaths among young people. The demand was made after the number of drug-related deaths in a single year hit new peaks in both the Strathclyde and Grampian police force areas. The toll of victims across Scotland in 1999 is also expected to create a grim record. A post-mortem examination is expected to be carried out today on one of the most recent victims, Kerry-Ann Kirk, 15. It is expected to confirm the Coatbridge schoolgirl died after experimenting with methadone, the heroin substitute. [continues 647 words]
A young North-east man died on Christmas Day after he is believed to have taken ecstasy at a party. Grampian Police today confirmed Craig Rennie, 23, of Ellon, was the region's latest suspected drugs victim. Drug deaths in the North-east will reach a tragic record of 31 if a post mortem examination confirms Mr Rennie died as a result of taking the drug. The forklift operator's family were being comforted at their home in Ellon's Coopers Court and were today too upset to speak. [continues 222 words]
CUSTOMS investigators have smashed a drugs and arms smuggling ring after 25 guns, rounds of ammunition and pounds 2million of drugs were found concealed in a lorry being brought into Britain from Belgium. Officers stopped a seven-and-a-half tonne lorry as it left a ferry at Dover in Kent yesterday. As they searched the curtain-sided trailer of the truck, they found access plates in the two crane arms being carried as cargo. Inside they found 13 kilos of Ecstasy tablets, 135 kilos of amphetamines as well as 25 firearms and 300 rounds of ammunition. The guns are mainly pistols and revolvers. Daniel Dooney, 46, from Mexborough, South Yorkshire, was charged and was due to appear before Dover magistrates today, a spokesman for Customs Investigation Service said. Shug The UK Cannabis Information website http://www.ukcia.org [end]
A schoolgirl who died from a drug overdose on Boxing Day may have shared a bottle of methadone at a Christmas party, it was claimed yesterday. Kerry-Ann Kirk, 15, who is thought to have had no previous experience of drugs, was found dead in a friend's home in Coatbridge, Lanarks. A police source said: "It would seem a group of teenagers were experimenting with a bottle of prescribed methadone during the party. Tragically, it would appear that, later that night, Kerry-Ann and another teenager drank the rest of the bottle." [continues 349 words]
Britain's anti-drugs co-ordinator gave a warning yesterday that youngsters seeking chemical kicks on New Year's Eve risk exposing themselves to adulterated drugs believed to be flooding the market because of unprecedented demand. Police are worried that extra supplies of drugs have been stockpiled for the millennium trade and some are dangerously adulterated. A warning about adulterated Ecstasy has already appeared on the Internet in the past month. Yesterday Keith Hellawell urged youngsters to think before taking a risk. [continues 689 words]
WITH the tree still cheerfully lit and festive decorations adorning her comfortable terraced home, Marie Kirk struggles to comprehend how her pretty, ambitious daughter could be dead. Lanarkshire girl Kerry-Ann would have been 16 in May, but following a suspected methadone overdose at a boyfriend's party on Christmas Day she lost her life. "If she did take anything it was either put in a drink without her knowledge - - or it was a one-off experiment. She hated drugs," a pale and tense Mrs Kirk said yesterday. [continues 742 words]
THE tragedy of Kerry-Ann Kirk is not the first involving methadone and will not be the last. The police inquiry will look at how methadone appears to have been freely available and accessible to a 15-year-old non-drug abuser. If early indications are correct and the drug was someone else's prescription taken by accident or as an experiment, then the inquiry should identify the weakness in the system which allowed it to happen. There has already been one case where a 28-year-old man was jailed for seven years in Edinburgh for killing a 17- year-old youth by supplying him with methadone and diazepam in Bathgate in 1998, the first case in which the Crown convicted a drug supplier of culpable homicide. [continues 396 words]
A girl aged 15 died on Christmas night after a suspected drugs overdose. If the cause of death is confirmed, Kerry-Ann Kirk, from Coatbridge, Strathclyde, would be the youngest drug victim of 1999 in a region that has seen a 50 per cent rise in drug-related deaths in the past year. She is thought to have died from an overdose of the heroin substitute methadone. Her body was found at the house of a school friend, where she had been at a party, on Boxing Day. [continues 367 words]
A 15-year-old girl who died after taking drugs for the first time at a Christmas Day party has become Scotland's youngest drugs victim this year. Kerry-Ann Kirk, of Coatbridge, is believed to have taken methadone, a prescribed heroin substitute, during a friend's party supervised by adults. A post-mortem examination is to be carried out and a report submitted to the Procurator Fiscal. Police said that Kerry-Ann had no history of drug abuse. Her body was found in the house at 1pm on Boxing Day lying under covers in a bedroom upstairs. Her friend's parents, who had supervised the party, had thought that she had gone home with everyone else the night before. An ambulance was called, but she had been dead for some time, police said. [continues 243 words]
Survey Shock: Scots Politicians Favour Decriminalising Cannabis A THIRD of MSPs want cannabis to be decriminalised, a new survey has revealed. And more than half of them want the drug to be available for medical use, on doctors' prescriptions. The findings are certain to add to mounting pressure for a change in the laws relating to soft drugs. The poll for a Sunday paper found that, out of the 54 who responded, 37 favoured a relaxation of the law to help sufferers of diseases such as multiple sclerosis. [continues 713 words]
Nine members of the Scottish Parliament have admitted trying cannabis and 18 are in favour of decriminalising the drug, it emerged yesterday. A survey of MSPs' attitudes to drugs also revealed that most are in favour of cannabis being used for medicinal purposes. The poll by the Scotland on Sunday newspaper found that 37 of the 54 MSPs who responded to a questionnaire favoured a relaxation of the law to help sufferers of diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Thirty-four MSPs said they wanted the parliament to debate the issue, even though drug laws are reserved to Westminster. A motion by Margo MacDonald of the Scottish National Party, calling for a royal commission to examine cannabis laws, has been signed by 35 MSPs. [continues 173 words]
Police Will Be Too Stretched To Worry About Prosecutions During Millennium Celebrations People will not be punished for smoking cannabis and taking drugs during millennium celebrations as part of unprecedented police plans to adopt a 'maximum tolerance' policy for the biggest celebration the world has ever seen. As millions of people prepare to take to the streets for parties next weekend, police forces across the country are expected to turn a blind eye to drug use, enabling thousands of revellers to take drugs with virtually no risk of being prosecuted. [continues 430 words]
A 14-year-old boy who carried a loaded semi-automatic pistol while dealing in crack cocaine and heroin was sent to a young offenders' institution for four and a half years yesterday. Anthony Ramsey, of Moss Side, Manchester, was arrested at the house where he was staying. Undercover police officers found him with drugs worth pounds 3,000, six mobile telephones, a radio scanner tuned to police frequencies and a semi-automatic pistol loaded with six rounds of ammunition. Ramsey, now 15, admitted possessing drugs with intent to supply when he appeared at Manchester Crown Court. He also admitted possession of a firearm and ammunition. Narda Thomas, 23, who pleaded guilty to allowing her home to be used for the supply of drugs, was jailed for three years. [continues 51 words]
Keith Hellawell, the Government's "drugs tsar" has revealed that British scientists have been licensed to produce a new variety of cannabis - one that is almost totally free of the element that gives smokers a "high". The scientists have been granted permission to grow the drug at a number of secret sites in the south of England. The new, "safe" variety is manufactured by extracting the element that gives the "high". The aim is to produce a drug that can be used to treat a number of illnesses including multiple sclerosis. [continues 720 words]
A drug addict mother whose three-year-old son died after drinking her methadone was put on probation yesterday. Melainy Lynch, 26, admitted cruelty to her son who was found dead on the settee next to his crying mother at their home in Dewsbury, west Yorks. The boy, Isaac, had drunk the methadone which had been prescribed to his mother who was trying to cure an addiction to heroin, Leeds Crown Court was told. Lynch, who was pregnant and clinically depressed at the time, had left the cap off the bottle and fallen asleep. The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Brian Walsh QC, told her: "This was a little boy who, despite the desperately unhappy and unsatisfactory conditions in which you were living, you brought up well. [continues 66 words]
LONDON -- Drug dealers are flooding Britain with millions of dollars' worth of unstable ecstasy pills in preparation for the millennium celebration, investigators warn. The National Criminal Investigation Service believes that criminal gangs are shipping large amounts of the drug from the Netherlands to feed British demand for parties and raves between Christmas and New Year's Eve. British Customs officers have seized 715 pounds of ecstasy -- about 1.3 million tablets -- since October. That is more than its entire haul for 1998. Customs warned that many of the tablets, marked "M," "Y2K" and "2000," will be particularly dangerous because short cuts have been taken in the manufacturing process. The pills are being made in bulk, and some will be three or four times more powerful than normal, authorities said. [continues 247 words]
A huge drugs and arms cache was discovered yesterday stowed in a lorry during a spot check at Dover docks, British customs investigators said. The haul was hidden inside a crane arm being brought into Britain from Belgium and included amphetamines and ecstasy worth pounds 2m, 25 guns and 300 rounds of ammunition, according to the Customs' National Investigation Service. The guns were 24 pistols and a sub-machine gun. The find follows warnings that criminal gangs are creating stockpiles of rave drugs ready for a lucrative blitz on the millennium party scene. [continues 141 words]
Drug traffickers are flooding the UK with millions of pounds worth of unstable ecstasy pills in preparation for the millennium, investigators warned yesterday. Customs and excise has seized 325kg of ecstasy, approximately 1.3m tablets, since October - more than its entire haul for 1998. The national criminal intelligence service believes that criminal gangs are shipping large amounts of the drug from Holland to feed demand for parties and raves between Christmas and new year. The agency warned that many of the tablets, marked M, Y2K and 2000, will be particularly dangerous because short cuts have been taken in the manufacturing process. The pills are being made in bulk, and some will be three or four times more powerful than normal, said a source. "Our fear is that a lot of people might consider taking ecstasy for the first time on New Year's Eve because it is such a special occasion." [continues 215 words]
British criminals are believed to have boosted the supply of synthetic drugs such as ecstasy in the hope of profiteering from prolonged celebrating by young people over the festive period. The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) issued a warning that the gangs behind the multi-million-pound trade in chemical drugs were attempting to flood the British market over Christmas and the Millennium. They also warned that young and impressionable people swept up by the "hype" over Millennium celebrations might be tempted to try chemical drugs for the first time, with the risk of potentially devastating side-effects. [continues 160 words]
I refer to your report (Two jailed over 'drug haven' homeless centre, December 18), concerning the sentencing of my sister, Ruth Wyner. Following your earlier excellent article and leader (December 15), it was disappointing that you published such an unbalanced report. You present the judge's view, which certainly should be reported, but with no other information. Overstream House was funded partly to help drug addicts, so it is not surprising that many were there. Indeed, at the trial, a prosecution witness who used the centre said he disliked having the addicts there but Ruth explained to him why it was necessary - it was their remit. [continues 164 words]
Your leader (December 15) rightly highlighted the difficulty of working with people who are homeless and use drugs. This is compounded by the failure of the government to fully recognise the scale of the problem. You cite the government's report as estimating the number of rough sleepers with drug problems to be 20%. The true figure is far higher, with studies in London, Manchester and Glasgow putting the figure at between 80% and 90%. This under-reporting of drug use should come as no surprise. Many drug users are barred from provision by agencies who feel they must exclude or risk prosecution. Other drug users do use services, but keep their drug use secret to avoid being excluded. This helps no one: agencies do not get the resources or support they need to do vital work; drug users do not access help they need to tackle their problems; and the public reap the consequences of drug users forced back on to the streets. Surely it is time to look again at the law and develop a sensible, legal framework which helps rather than hinders dedicated professionals working with those most in need. Kevin Flemen Release [end]
This is a dark day. Two social-care colleagues, Ruth Wyner and John Brock of Wintercomfort in Cambridge, have begun long prison sentences. Why? They were presumed unwilling to cooperate fully with the police to combat a drugs problem at their homeless day centre. Thousands of social workers like myself working with homeless people have been effectively criminalised and the confidentiality rules of professional bodies like the British Association of Social Workers destroyed. We are all made coppers' narks over night. Prof David Brandon, Cambridge [end]
Charges alleging drugs offences in England brought against Dubliner John Joseph Gilligan, 47, were dropped at Woolwich Crown Court yesterday after a three minute hearing. Gilligan, who still faces extradition to Ireland to face charges of murdering Veronica Guerin, the possession and control and drugs and ammunition and other drug offences will recover some personal costs involved in his defence of the British charges, for which he was returned for trial. He was arrested at Heathrow Airport over three years ago in possession of pounds 330,000 in used notes and held at Belmarsh Top Security Prison pending this trial, but this was technically adjourned when the Irish authorities sought his return. [continues 327 words]
Drug abuse leaves thousands of children without parents at Christmas. Patricia Nicol on an abandoned generation and those who raise them It is a typical children's Christmas party. There is jelly and ice-cream, pass the parcel and pin the tail on the donkey. Joe, who works as a caretaker at the church across the road, is Father Christmas. He has a present for each child: Barbie dolls for the girls, toy cars for the boys and building blocks for the toddlers. [continues 2347 words]
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND -- Two executives of a charity have been sentenced to jail for failing to stop drug dealing outside a homeless shelter. In a packed Cambridge courtroom, Ruth Wyner and John Brock were sentenced Friday to 5 and 4 years respectively for failing to inform police about the drug dealing outside Overstream House. In his ruling, Judge Jonathon Haworth said Wyner and Brock had created "a haven for heroin dealers" at the shelter. Wyner, director of the Cambridge charity, Wintercomfort, and Brock, a project manager, were convicted last month; they had faced sentences of up to 14 years. [continues 59 words]
Prof David Brandon, Cambridge [end]
The head of a homeless charity was jailed for five years yesterday for allowing heroin to be supplied at its premises. Ruth Wyner, 49, ran homeless projects in Norwich and Yarmouth before moving to Cambridge to take over as director of the charity Wintercomfort. At her trial last month, King's Lynn Crown Court heard a drop-in centre run from its offices in the city was more like a supermarket for drug dealers. Sentencing Wyner at Cambridge Crown Court Judge Jonathan Howarth told her she had ignored her responsibilities. [continues 335 words]
A Sheffield delivery driver who smoked cannabis but refused to buy it from dealers set up his own farm. But now 23-year-old Daniel Bonsall has vowed never to touch the drug again after police raided his Sheffield home. They discovered a sophisticated hydroponic system with high power lights in his cellar along with 84 cannabis plants. In the bathroom police found a plastic bag containing discarded flower-heads, described in Sheffield Crown Court as "wastage". Bonsall told police he had been using cannabis since he was 14. [continues 92 words]
A government minister whose son died from a heroin overdose earlier this year made an emotional appeal to MPs yesterday to play their part in the war against drugs. The cabinet office minister, Ian McCartney was responding at Commons question time to the Ulster Unionist MP, Martin Smyth, who asked what progress was being made in directing cash away from known drug runners into the fight against narcotics. Mr McCartney replied the government was working internationally to prevent drugs coming into Britain. [continues 334 words]
I read your article "Black arrests cause concern" and was again reminded how frequently our human rights are abused in the name of the "war on drugs". The use of cannabis, Ecstasy, cocaine and other illegal drugs are so widespread in modern society that the police cannot justify the amazing bias they show by stopping blacks seven times as frequently as whites. Norfolk Chief Constable Ken Williams said: "All parts of our community must have the confidence that their constabulary will deal with them in a sensitive and fair manner." [continues 125 words]
Sirs, I read your article "Black arrests cause concern" and was again reminded how frequently our human rights are abused in the name of the "war on drugs". The use of cannabis, Ecstasy, cocaine and other illegal drugs are so widespread in modern society that the police cannot justify the amazing bias they show by stopping blacks seven times as frequently as whites. Norfolk Chief Constable Ken Williams said: "All parts of our community must have the confidence that their constabulary will deal with them in a sensitive and fair manner." [continues 130 words]
The first clinical trails into the medical benefits of cannabis on people suffering from multiple sclerosis are to be carried out by the Medical Research Council, it was announced yesterday. It has approved pounds 959,00 grant for a 3-year study into the therapeutic effects of extracts from the drug on MS sufferers. People suffering from the disease have claimed it can ease their symptoms. Several patients have been prosecuted in recent years after using the drug to alleviate their pain. [continues 478 words]
A charity has drawn up the first guide for children whose parents are drug users, in response to growing numbers of young people seeking help. The guide, which has been endorsed by Jack Straw, the home secretary, gives children basic information on drugs, advice on where to get support, and basic rules to follow in an emergency. It says: "If you find your mum or dad in a bad way - for example, if they're unconscious and you can't wake them or they're behaving strangely, and you think they may have taken drugs - it is very important to get help immediately." [continues 205 words]
The first clinical trial of cannabis in relieving the pain and symptoms of multiple sclerosis is to go ahead, following approval and a grant of pounds 950,000 from the medical research council. The three year study will be run by John Zajicek, a consultant neurologist at Derriford hospital in Plymouth, but the 660 MS patients involved will be from all over the country. "We hope the study will provide definite scientific evidence about whether or not taking cannabis is helpful to people with MS," said Dr Zajicek. [continues 187 words]
Clare Hodges describes herself as a "middle-aged, middle class woman", but she is forced to break the law on a daily basis in order to relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Mrs Hodges, a 42-year-old mother of two, has suffered from the disease for 17 years and has used cannabis to alleviate spasms and pain since reading of its effects in a US magazine eight years ago. She heads the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics, which campaigns for people with medical conditions to be allowed to use the drug. The alliance estimates that more than 10,000 people in Britain use cannabis to relieve pain. [continues 52 words]
A three-year clinical trial costing pounds 950,000 is to be carried out into the effects of cannabis on people suffering from multiple sclerosis. Patients have claimed that the drug can ease their symptoms, and several have faced prosecution for using it. Dr John Zajicek, a consultant neurologist at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, will study 660 patients from all over the country, the Medical Research Council said yesterday as it announced details of the trial. He will select those who have significant spasticity in some of their leg muscles. [continues 264 words]
A STUDY to test the pain relief cannabis can give people with multiple sclerosis could pave the way to the drug's legalisation. The Medical research Council has approved a grant of nearly one million pounds for the first clinical trial into the health effects of regularly taking cannabis. People with MS, which effects the brain and spinal cord, say cannabis can ease he pain, muscle stiffness, sickness and tremors associated with the illness. Doctors are preparing to recruit 650 patients for the three-year trial which will test whether extracts from the Class B drug can really offer effective relief. Campaigners say up to 10,000 of Britain's 65,000 MS patients break the law by using cannabis to relieve the symptoms for which there is no known cure. Several have been prosecuted. [continues 177 words]
Figures showing that black people in Norfolk are nearly seven times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white people have been condemned by a race equality group. Black residents are also nearly six times more likely to be arrested than whites, the latest statistics show. Norwich and Norfolk Racial Equality Council (NNREC) hit out at the figures but stressed that the problem was with society as a whole. The figures show disparity in Norfolk is actually higher than it is nationally. [continues 267 words]
THE WAR against drugs took a significant step forward yesterday with the official unveiling of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency. For the first time Scotland will have an intelligence-centred organisation dedi-cated to targeting drug crime. Early in the new year the first of 200 officers will be recruited to staff the drug busting agency which will cost UKP 35 million a year to run. The role of the SDEA will be to tackle the drugs menace on every front in a sustained and co-ordinated operation against those who pedal misery. [continues 336 words]
I followed with interest the election campaign of Colin Paisley who stood in the Kensington and Chelsea by-election as a Legalise Cannabis Alliance candidate. May I congratulate Colin on his clear-mindedness on the cannabis issue and compassion he has for medical cannabis users who face prosecution. Successive Governments have refused a debate, preferring to hide behind the "Reefer Madness" propaganda which came from the USA in the sixties. They favour more dangerous and apparently less effective drug treatments provided by the profit-making pharmaceutical companies. [continues 116 words]
Jack Straw's high-profile policies designed to crack down on drug-related crime and anti-social behaviour have stalled, new official figures reveal. More than half the Government's drug treatment and testing orders, its flagship policy designed to wean criminals off drugs, have either been revoked or breached, according to figures emerging from three pilot areas. Only six anti-social behaviour orders have been issued and not one child curfew has been imposed. The reluctance of police and local councils to use the new flagship powers included in the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act could prove a severe setback for Straw. [continues 560 words]
Your correspondents argue the toss over whether or not prescription drugs should be available over the counter (30 October, p 56). It is easy to dream up utopias brought about by wise laws. H. G. Wells, for example, believed that society should be governed on scientific principles by a group of experts. Alcohol and cigarettes in such a society would almost certainly be banned, possibly to be replaced by far safer drugs such as cannabis, thus reducing what Rob Colebrook calls the "phenomenal cost ... of easy access to tobacco and alcohol". [continues 129 words]
GLASGOW, Scotland - Hugh McCartney, 23, died alone and in despair in a derelict, boarded-up public-housing project scheduled for demolition in one of Glasgow's most deprived neighborhoods. He had known that drugs would kill him someday. In his wallet, police found a note, clearly intended for his family, that he had kept there for some time: "Don't feel guilty, just feel happy I am not putting myself through any more punishment." McCartney was the 107th person to die of a drug overdose this year in Strathclyde, a Scottish region with a population of 2 million that includes Glasgow. In the two weeks since, the number has risen to 111 and by year's end is expected to total between 120 and 130, well over 10 percent of all drug deaths in Britain. [continues 921 words]
IT IS 13,500 miles from the City of London to the bamboo shack on the Pacific island of Nauru, but pounds 1m can cover the distance in a fifteenth of a second. The tiny sovereign state has become a safe haven for the proceeds of drug trafficking, prostitution, people smuggling and other rackets by gangs in Britain, Russia and America. Every day tens of millions of pounds are believed to be laundered through at least 200 banks and shell companies registered in the hut that houses the Nauru Agency Corporation (NAC). Investigators chasing dirty money were astonished that the island, whose main income was once from mining fossilised bird droppings for fertiliser, has become a huge financial washing machine. [continues 746 words]
'Al Wuthba prison is a hell hole. I know that even when he gets home, my son will never be the same again' Tracy McVeigh The lush desert oasis should have been a perfect holiday destination. Instead, it has become a prison for two Britons arrested on drug and alcohol charges and, say their relatives, abandoned to their fate by uncaring British authorities. Lynn Majarkas, 44, head teacher of a special needs school, had not had a holiday in 10 years, so she jumped at the chance to take a last-minute bargain break in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, with boyfriend Ian Bamling, 30, the school's welfare official. They flew off in October 1998 but have yet to return. [continues 769 words]
Motorists suspected of taking drugs will be asked to walk along a straight line or to stand on one leg under police tests that will be introduced next year. Chief constables are resurrecting physical tests once used by traffic officers for drunk drivers in the 1950s and 1960s, before the advent of the breathalyser. They are adopting them because there is no suitable roadside testing kit available, despite concern at the increasing use of drugs by drivers. Trials of the "field impairment tests" were carried out last summer in Northamptonshire, Strathclyde, North Wales, South Wales, Derbyshire and Cleveland. The Northamptonshire force has made a training video and a spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers said that the tests were expected to be introduced early next year. [continues 253 words]
Former Carlisle Mayor Battles it out at the Polls in Posh Kensington FORMER Carlisle mayor Colin Paisley today shares the political limelight with the man tipped as a future Tory Party leader. During the early hours of tomorrow, the veteran drugs campaigner and former heroin addict will join Conservative Party candidate Michael Portico and other would-be MP's to hear the result of the Kensington and Chelsea by-election. Mr Paisley, 62, has been selected as the official candidate for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance. [continues 293 words]
Ten drug traffickers who imported cocaine from South America received jail terms of between six and 20 years yesterday. They were members of a gang that initially used motorcycles to carry the drug from the Continent into Britain but later changed to four wheel-drive vehicles that were carried by ship to mainland Europe. Leeds Crown Court was told that special compartments were welded inside the wheel hubs of the vehicles into which Columbian cocaine with a street value of pounds 20 million was hidden after being vacuum packed. The racket was uncovered when members of a 40-strong Customs operation, codenamed Tablecut, stopped two of the gang in a Land Rover at the Channel Tunnel. More than 30 kilos of cocaine were found in each wheel. [continues 237 words]
A police chief was ordered to pay pounds 18,000 damages yesterday to a nine-year-old boy and his uncle after drug squad officers ambushed their car and smashed the windows in the mistaken belief that they were drug dealers. A sheriff awarded pounds 8,000 to Robert Cowan, who was five at the time of the incident, and pounds 10,000 to Ian Fielding, 37. He described the evidence given by two Strathclyde Police detectives as "inherently improbable" and said they had acted maliciously during the raid. [continues 246 words]
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