East London News A Force for the community…
POLICE OFFICERS have hailed Wednesday’s dawn drugs raids in Tower Hamlets as a good example of Operation Continuum – which is carried out in partnership with Tower Hamlets Council.
The new Operation replaces the scheme run by the previous Executive Mayor, Lutfur Rahman, known as “dealer a day”, under which police and the Council worked together to arrest a minimum of one drug dealer every day, each year.
Operation Continuum is an intelligence led scheme. It aims suppress the supply of drugs and thereby reduce the violence and criminality associated with the drugs “trade”. During this week’s raids, police arrested six men in their 20s and took them to an East London police station. Their searches of the properties led to the recovery of substances believed to be Class A drugs.
Commenting on the raids, Detective Inspector Sean Lyons said, “This morning’s warrants serve as evidence of the zero-tolerance approach the Met takes towards drug-related criminality in our communities. We have responded to the concerns of the local community and will continue to take the necessary action required to disrupt the supply of drugs and reduce levels of associated violent crime in the area. Operation Continuum remains a highly successful investigation which will continue to run in order to crack down on drug dealing and make neighbourhoods cleaner and safer for all.”
John Biggs, disgraced Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets, took time out from driving down the terms and conditions of his workforce to say, “We know that our residents are concerned about crime, especially drug dealing and taking, which is why we work with police partners to conduct operations that actively disrupt local drug markets, which are a blight on the community. I am committed to making Tower Hamlets a safer borough, and with the police we will continue to carry out these operations, targeting those intent on breaking the law.”
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