Drug police in JCB smash and grab raid

UNDER the cover of darkness, they smashed through the gates with sledgehammers and angle grinders, then rammed through the front door after using a mechanical digger to break down a wall around the fortified luxury home.

But this was not an audacious crime by a gang of robbers; it was a drugs bust by the Metropolitan Police to smash a £100 million cocaine empire.

The dawn raid, which took six months to plan, was one of more than 30 that took place throughout the day at homes and businesses across London and the Home Counties in the largest operation of its type in Britain.

Once through the front doors, scores of police in riot gear and carrying shields, swarmed inside the £3 million detached property in west London. Helicopter searchlights played over the grounds as police entered the house. Officers in charge of the raid said the mechanical digger was brought in to counter extra security at the double-fronted house in Hillingdon.

Following the bust, a 40-year-old man and another, younger man, believed to be his son, were arrested and taken to a north London police station.

Senior officers said the massive operation had wiped out one of Britain's biggest cocaine rings and struck a "huge blow" against the illegal trade.

An estimated 110kg of cocaine with a street value of £5.5 million was seized as 22 people were arrested and several guns were recovered. Scotland Yard said the operation, which involved 520 officers, was the largest group of simultaneous raids they had undertaken.

Detective Superintendent Steve Richardson, who was responsible for the operation, said the raids were the final blow to dismantle the network. He described the gang as "ruthless and determined criminals", who profited from illegal drugs.

He said: "We have targeted the key players in a serious and organised criminal network, culminating in a huge blow to the illegal drugs industry in the UK. These criminals have been living the lives of wealthy businessmen through criminal activity.

"We believe this network has been supplying drugs around the country, earning millions of pounds every week."

The operation, codenamed Eaglewood, followed months of surveillance and information gathering by Scotland Yard's elite specialist intelligence section. Police targeted the heads of several well-established gangs who came together to create a "clearing house" to launder drug profits.

Detectives said some of the men lived lives of luxury similar to English Premier League footballers, driving sports cars, frequenting London's best restaurants and jet-setting around the world.

Mr Richardson said criminals laundered more than £100 million of drug money through a network of foreign exchange bureaux and other financial businesses. But their success at selling drugs created problems with the quantity of money they were forced to handle.

As a result, members would exchange suitcases full of 500 (£375) banknotes, the world's highest value note. The cash, now in more manageable packages, would then be taken to Europe and invested in property and bank accounts.

Police said the gang used a taxi business, based in a shabby corrugated iron and breezeblock building, as its headquarters. Up to £4 million is thought to have passed through the taxi firm every week as it also operated as a legitimate business.

The other properties raided were in London, Surrey, Kent and Hertfordshire. A 45-year-old man and a woman of unknown age were arrested at a property in Willesden, north-west London, where police found a gun and drugs.

In West Molesey, Surrey, a 54-year-old man of Egyptian origin, suspected of acting as a financial middleman for the gang, was arrested at a terraced house.

In Beckenham, Kent, a 54-year-old man was arrested as a gun, £2,000 and a pepper spray canister were found.

Police revealed that more than 20 people had been arrested before yesterday, as officers seized almost £3 million, 70kg of cocaine and four guns, including a silencer.

As the raids took place, police moved to freeze bank accounts and access to properties across mainland Europe.

Among those arrested were men with British, Israeli, Iraqi, Egyptian and Irish backgrounds.

RISE AND RISE OF COCAINE
COCAINE was once considered the champagne of drugs, accessible to only the wealthy and well-connected. But in the past decade its use has grown to what police claim is an "epidemic".

In Scotland between 2005 and 2006, seizures of the drug shot up by 42 per cent, from 870 to 1,233.

The figures reflect predictions last year that cocaine will become Scotland's most-used illegal drug within the next five years.

As availability has increased, the price of the drug has fallen. Experts have said that at the beginning of the decade, a gram of cocaine would have cost up to £100. It is now as low as £35.

With use of the drug prevalent across the class spectrum, police have adopted alternative strategies to fight it.

These have included graphic adverts showing the physical effects on users and the danger of heart failure.

Another approach was to persuade middle-class recreational users to consider the ethical dimension bound up in the drug's production, including the violence and exploitation used by cartels to traffic the substance across the world.