Wednesday 1 February 2012

Shepherd's Bush Market drugs bust

On Wednesday 2nd November 2011 officers from our very own Safer Neighbourhood Team arrested seven people following a joint operation to disrupt drug dealing in Shepherds Bush Market.

The SNT, supported by officers from across London, descended upon various locations within the market where drugs were openly being stored and supplied.

During the search of six market stalls predominantly selling West Indian artifacts and fast food police recovered a Kilo of Herbal Cannabis & £2000 in cash.

Drug dealing paraphernalia in the form of digital scales, bags and other packaging were also seized.
  • Selwyn Brown 45 yrs - Charged with Possession With Intent To Supply Cannabis
  • Leonard Andall 50 yrs - Charged with Possession With Intent To Supply & Possession of Cannabis
  • 35 year old man - No Further Action
  • Emmanuel Andrew 40 yrs - Charged with Possession With Intent To Supply Cannabis
  • Milton Richardson 50 yrs - Charged with Possession With Intent To Supply & Possession of Cannabis
  • Emmanual Eboka 45 yrs - Charged with Possession With Intent To Supply & Possession of Cannabis
  • Roy Lewis 52 years - Charged with Possession With Intent To Supply Cannabis
All are due to appear at Hammersmith Magistrates Court on Friday 2nd March 2012

Detective Sergeant Simon Rogers from Hammersmith & Fulham's Drugs Squad said:
“This operation highlights the Drug Squad's commitment to removing drug dealers from the streets of Hammersmith & Fulham. We will continue to work with local Safer Neighbourhoods Teams and Partner Agencies in a bid to remove the dealers from the streets of Shepherds Bush."
Chief Superintendent Lucy D'Orsi Hammersmith & Fulham's Borough Commander said:
“My officers are committed to disrupting criminal activity and are actively targeting those involved in crime in Hammersmith and Fulham. The Borough Drugs Squad led operation was a result of intelligence gathered by officers and I would urge the community to let us know, in confidence, where criminality is taking place so that we can provide the most appropriate response."

26 comments:

  1. End the prohibition of cannabis.

    Minimise all health and social harms.

    Pull the rug from under organised crime.

    Boost the UK economy by up to £9.3 billion per annum.

    Permit the use of one of the safest and most effective medicines known to man.

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    1. so true Peter.

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    2. Would love to see this come to light in government eyes. Cannabis oil has proven to have a beneficial effect towards curing cancer, surely that alone is enough factual proof to say that allowing it to be used safely in the hands of medical professionals means that cancer patients have a massive increase in survival rate.

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  2. Why are you wasting our tax payer money on this nonsense? Who cares if people want to get high? Why not use your time tackling real criminals, who threaten us at every corner? Because that's dangerous? Boo-hoo. Do your jobs properly, and don't gloat about spending our taxes on this utter waste of time.

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  3. roll up roll up to the biggest boost all econmys canabis ever wanted

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  4. have faith in canabis an youll all go a long way live life goodness t all

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  5. Does anyone really think this is worth doing? Stopping people getting high?? I know it funds crime, but that is literally only due to the law - it has nothing to do with the drug itself.

    Tax the £2k cash+ other revenues (up to £9.3billion P.A.), let them earn a living on the stalls, keep them off the dole!

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  6. Such a waste of time and money policing this when much more harmful drugs are allowed. Tax and regulate and enjoy a boost to the economy, free our citizens who are incarcerated for providing a safe and effective medicine which we can all grow ourselves.Stop the big pharma and alcohol domination of UK drug policy smoke some weed and enjoy life.

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  7. How many more lives do the Police need to destroy before we can return to being called civilised?
    The biggest problem with soft drugs like cannabis is the criminal record you get if caught with it.
    Alcohol and Tobacco are far more evil products and it is complete hypocricy to allow these dangerous tax drugs while prohibiting comparatively harmless ones.
    Wake up and smell the coffee!

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  8. wow man, you must have been, like, WAY out there to write ten comments ...

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  9. Read these comments carefully [Insert current Metropolitan Police Commissioner here]

    You have better things to do with YOUR time and OUR money. Stop ruining the lives of your fellow citizens by enforcing these ridiculous busts, really? I mean, you really don't have any better things to do being a Policeman? I have problems with noisy, violent, messy and aggressive pub goers EVERY single day around my flat, why not get rid of Alcohol instead, it is a lot more destructive and damaging, don't you know?

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  10. Seems to me that since Cannabis has been in regular use for thousands of years, our symbiotic relationship with this beneficial herb is now strongly making it's needs known. People will look back on this era of Cannabis prohibition much as we now look back and see how stupid alcohol prohibition was. This is all so damaging to society and every day the damage gets worse and harder to recover from. Can you imagine the power that the likes of Al Capone would now wield if the alcohol prohibition had been allowed to continue for nearly 100 years? They would have enough legislators in their pockets so that they could influence governments and ensure that alcohol prohibition continued. Now that is exactly the position the "drug barons" are in today. For this reason I believe that legalisation of Cannabis is the most urgent issue on this planet today.
    What we need, instead of a blanket prohibition of Cannabis, is a proper legally regulated supply that will benefit the U.K. economy through huge tax revenues and free up the resources of the police and courts to deal with real crimes. Most of all a properly regulated supply will protect young people, as it is in the area of Age Limits that prohibition has proven such a huge failure. In countries where there is provision for the legal supply of Cannabis to adults the use of Cannabis, and indeed other substances as well, is greatly reduced amongst youngsters. This is because the licensed suppliers know full well that if they are caught supplying to minors they stand to lose their licence, so they just don't do it. Whereas in good old Blighty we have to soldier on with prohibition giving the whole market straight into the hands of dealers who simply want to see your money, they will sell Cannabis to anyone of any age. And that's not all! These unscrupulous dealers are often likely to say "Oh sorry, I couldn't get any weed this week, this other stuff is all they had, why don't you try some?" and then proceed to offer Heroin.
    So, legalise, regulate and tax the supply of Cannabis for a Britain that is happier, less violent and more affluent.

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  11. Catch some real criminals! What a waste of police resources.

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  12. You could buy spliff at Shepherds Bush Market? All I ever found of any use was cheap kitchenwear :(

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  13. While I obviously can't condone criminal activity (giggles then maintains stern expression and sombre voice), I can't help feeling that our neighbourhoods haven't been made any safer by this latest activity of our Safer Neighbourhoods Teams. Sounds to me like these were all scrupulously honest tradesmen (digital scales, hygenic packaging, etc.,- what more do people want?!) doing a bit of under the counter work for their regular customers. Probably better than having kids scrapping over it on street corners. Can't believe that a few dozen citizens smoking dope in front of the telly is a major public order issue.
    Someone's going to post about how some modern weed is stronger and more dangerous than 'traditional'. So how do they think that happened? Because customers asked for it? No, because criminals saw a faster way of making more money. Taking drugs IS bonkers, but alcohol causes more harm both individually and socially. Leave them alone - cannabis smoking will last as long as cigarette smoking. It's not one of society's great evils.

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  14. @Tom, I heartily agree with you. Why do we have to skulk around pretending that we don't smoke it, when millions do? Why does it have to be kept secret from all but your closest friends? Why does the government try to stigmatise it so much? The reason for the government's reluctance to accept different recreational drugs, and fastidiously sticking to alcohol and tobacco despite health issues, is succinctly dissected in jacobsm.com/hicks3.mp3 Gifts of Forgiveness (MP3 22kHz 32kbps Mono 700KB Length 2 mins 55 secs). If you consider it a "psychedelic" (I certainly do), then Terence McKenna's laconic 41 second explanation as to why all these types of drugs are illegal, can be found jacobsm.com/twhy.mp3 HERE and I heartily agree with him.

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  15. Why don't we try taking a completely new approach to this issue? Around three million people in Britain use cannabis regularly and whatever we do we're not going to stop them.

    We waste billions every year on police, court and prison resources when a large proportion of society uses cannabis without any problem at all. In fact, the only real problem with cannabis is that it's illegal.

    The risks to health are very small - much, much less than alcohol or tobacco. By a recent analysis of mortality, hospital admissions, toxicity and propensity to psychosis, cannabis is nearly 3000 times safer than alcohol. Why not introduce a tax and regulate system and realise the benefits?

    That way we'd have a properly regulated supply chain with no criminals involved, no theft of electricity, no human trafficking, no destruction of property and disruption of neighbourhoods. Then there would be some control over this huge market. There would be thousands of new jobs, sales would be from licensed outlets to adults only with guaranteed quality and safety. Then our police could start going after some real wrongdoing instead of trying to fight a crime that exists only because of a misguided government policy.

    Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR) published independent research on 14th September 2011 that shows a cannabis tax and regulate regime would provide a net gain to the UK exchequer of £6.7 billion per annum as well as reducing all health and social harms.

    The only thing that keeps the present absurd status quo in place is weak politicians corrupted by the alcohol and Big Pharma lobbies.

    Go to the CLEAR website for full details: www.clear-uk.org

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  16. What a waste of public public money and police resources. Shame on them!

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  17. same old story, chanrged with a beneficial and medicinal herb with intent to supply, legalise this remarkable higher order plant and put an end to decent people becoming criminals/ waste of public money arresting what would be (under a decent government) law abiding citizens

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  18. I agree that the use of cannabis should be decriminalised, despite having a couple of friends who have been permanently mentally damaged by its use.

    However, the point here is that whatever one thinks of the merits of its legal status, it is undermining of the rule of law to have those laws so obviously and publicly flouted.

    New York has shown that the broken windows theory isn't just a theory, it works. The rule of law needs to be upheld, to the benefit of the whole community.

    Campaign for the decriminalisation of cannabis by all means, but don't accuse the police of not doing their jobs properly.

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    1. With respect, you're missing the point - most people are accusing the police of exactly that, and with what they claim is good reason: with limited resources, the police do have to "ration" their effort and allocate it carefully. They protect us better by stopping crime that really causes a problem rather than indulging in set piece operations that affect only statistics, not people's lives.

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    2. I understand that point of view. However the problem in this case is that the law-breaking was pretty damn obvious. Allowing it to continue in full public gaze was an affront to the police's authority. They were presumably left with no choice but to arrest them, despite I'm sure preferring to concentrate on other crimes.

      The summer riots showed that the 'thin blue line' is dependent on a societal respect of the rule of law.

      The police can turn a blind eye on minor infractions but dealing drugs, even class C, is not minor, certainly not according to the statute books. They have to uphold the law, even if there are other things it would be better they concentrated on.

      That's why I agree it would be better if cannabis were de-criminalised. It would allow the police to permanently concentrate on 'real' crimes, without undermining their duty to the law, and society's subsequent respect for it.

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    3. I think the term you are looking for is "legitimacy". The law only works if people believe in it. If you let people break the law, you're eroding that belief:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimacy_%28political%29

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    4. That's the one... thanks!

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  19. I for one would like to congratulate the Police on their sterling work bringing these criminals to justice. The pros and cons of the health benefits of cannabis and the associated conspiracy theories can be debated for hours - but the reality is that it is a controlled drug in this country and it is illegal to sell it - it is a criminal enterprise. These guys aren't happy go lucky hippies proposing an open friendly market commune thing man - they're slimey drug dealers who thought they could operate with impunity. They're all well into middle age and should know better - total losers. I do think the Police should be congratulated when they apply the law they are paid to uphold - before the debate moves so swiftly to the rights and wrongs of cannabis use.

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