Gangs of brazen drug dealers have been peddling crack cocaine and heroin in plain sight in the shadow of one of England's main city centres. The bleak reality being played out on Manchester's streets has emerged following an undercover operation to smash the gangs who were living "Love Island lifestyles", which saw 17 arrested..
Dawn raids were carried out earlier this week after an eight-month police investigation into drugs being sold openly on streets between Piccadilly and the Etihad Stadium. Officers posed as drug users to buy crack and recorded the deals.
Detectives say they 'have never seen drug dealing so brazen and unchallenged' in the city before. One of the streets taken over by dealers is Palmerston Street, which stretches from the city centre to the estates of Beswick, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Tucked away amid nearby swanky developments in Ancoats and New Islington, it feels a world away. Flanked by overgrown woodland, its secluded location and close proximity to the city's homeless population were ideal for dealers intent on peddling misery.
Yet families living on a nearby housing estate say they are being subjected to a daily "nightmare" that has left them afraid to let their children out. Locals say dealers and sex workers gather outside the abandoned River Inn pub close to Palmerston Street's junction with Ancoats Grove. It is not uncommon for people to find used needles, condoms and even human faeces outside their homes.
Another man said he regularly heard "screaming and shouting" outside his home in the early hours of the morning. "There are needles and contraceptives all over the place," he explained. Another man said he regularly saw crowds of homeless people descend on the area to buy drugs. "They run down the hill behind my house at night," he added.
Detectives say the dealers have been making huge profits to help finance flash lifestyles. One suspect has been spending £1,500 a month hiring a top-of-the-range car. Cash is also being splashed on designer clothes, jewellery, and watches.
Detective Sergeant Dan Pickavance, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "It is very lucrative indeed. They are preying on their vulnerabilities. The people we have identified as being behind this, are themselves living Love Island lifestyles, on the back of selling heroin to drug users."
He added: "There are 450 rough sleepers around Manchester. I would suggest a large number of them, at least twice a day, will go into north Manchester to purchase class A drugs at £20 a round. We have identified at least six drugs lines running in that area.
"They are using the money for ridiculously expensive clothes like tracksuits, and hire cars. One person we have identified was spending £1,500 a month on a car. I have been many many houses where you'll see a number of Selfridges bags in the houses - all goods bought with cash. They will think nothing of spending £1,000 on a Saturday night in Manchester. These drug dealers are leeching off our communities. and it's time to fight back."
Rivalries between different drugs factions are also behind a spate of tit-for-tat shootings in the districts. In raids, police recovered weapons, including a terrifying serrated zombie knife kept under a sofa in a house where a one-year-old lives, plus large amounts of cash, drugs, and designer clothes.
Detective Sergeant Pickavance said: "I have worked north Manchester for pretty much all of my career, which is 14 years. I have always been aware that there's a drug dealing problem. However more recently I have seen that issue become more prevalent, more visual, it is open air drug dealing. I have never seen that before in Manchester. I have never seen it so brazen and unchallenged.
"We wanted to put in an operation to clear the decks and then some kind of framework to stop this continuing to happen. It is all crack cocaine and heroin, and their entire market almost is the homeless and rough sleeping population, from the city centre. There's three waves every single day. You get the early morning trade from about 9am to 10am, where you will see drug users coming into Miles Platting and Beswick to purchase class A drugs with money they have begged. They then disappear back into the city centre to their begging spots.
"They come back at one to two o'clock in the afternoon to purchase from well established drugs lines, and again in the evening. What my angle is, is to remove permanently those drug dealing lines and then to send out text messages to people on the drug dealers' phones, (drug users) saying if you need some help and support contact us. We want to remove that easy access for them to get the drugs."
Following the raids, local councillor Alan Good welcomed the action taken by police. He said: "I'm pleased to see progress on combatting drug dealing in Ancoats and Beswick. Many residents have expressed concerns to me about these issues and I am glad they are being tackled."
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