Dealers operate under nose of police

The scale of Brixton's open drugs trade is revealed today in pictures of dealers operating within yards of police patrols.

An Evening Standard investigation found one group of dealers working in broad daylight a short distance from Brixton Underground station, which has been the focus of high-profile police activity.

Our photographs were taken last Friday near the Ritzy cinema and illustrate the massive task Scotland Yard faces in tackling the problem.

Today the officer in charge of policing Lambeth pledged to eradicate open drug dealing in Brixton within a year as he launched a major operation against the £250,000-a-week crack cocaine trade.

Chief Superintendent Brian Moore said: "I am going to close down open street dealing in Brixton for good. We are going to deprive the dealers of their habitat."

The operation, codenamed Long Arm, will involve more than 30 officers patrolling the centre of Brixton. Officers will be given "micro beats" - some as small as 20 metres long - to target and drive out individual dealers, while mobile police stations will be used to pursue those who try to move to other areas of Lambeth.

Evening Standard last week observed a group of young men as they appeared to make a succession of deals in Rushcroft Road, behind the Ritzy cinema. One photograph shows a youth wearing a white Nike visor handing over a bag to a young woman with long dyed-blonde hair. It was not clear whether the men were selling cannabis or harder drugs but they were seen rolling joints and passing cannabis to one another. They turned their backs to the world and faced a tall hedge during the apparent exchange of money and drugs.

Home Secretary David Blunkett last month signalled he would ask Parliament to vote on downgrading cannabis from a class B to a class C drug but stressed: "We will clamp down on dealers who prey on the young."

Mr Blunkett said dealers of class B and C drugs would face a maximum jail sentence of 14 years - up from five.

Those caught in possession of small amounts of cannabis would no longer be arrested but use of the drug would still be illegal. Users could face arrest in "aggravated" cases, for example when smoking cannabis near children or if smoke was blown into the face of a police officer.

Since the Home Secretary's announcement, Scotland Yard has abandoned its "softly softly" cannabis pilot scheme in Brixton and adopted tougher guidelines that allow arrests to be made for possession in certain circumstances.

Police made their first arrest under the new rules on Sunday night, when a 19-year-old man was held and charged with possession after reportedly dealing to children.

The year-long operation against crack dealing in Brixton will target the open drugs market as well as Lambeth's 80- odd crack houses.

Police plan to raid 15 crack dens a week, launching the first raids last night.

Mr Moore said: "We will eradicate open street dealing in the Brixton town centre for good by depriving the dealers of the habitat within which they operate and holding the ground they leave behind.

"We will work closely with the community and the council to get rid of graffiti and abandoned cars that allow these dealers to congregate and contribute to an air of menace. We will step up patrols with some officers walking micro beats of 20 to 25 metres until the dealers move on.

"I am concerned about the response from the community and we will be talking to people about why we are doing this.

"However, the message we are getting is that people support this."

On Sunday there will be an anti-crack cocaine march through Brixton to tell dealers to move out.

Police estimate around 35 crack dealers operate in central Brixton streets each day in two shifts, selling about 3,500 small rocks of crack for £10 each.

Although the focus is on crack dealers, there are around a dozen heroin dealers and a dozen cannabis dealers also operating in the centre.

They too are likely to be swept up in the operation.