March 09, 2010
Major Drugs Seizure – Bedford
Skunk cannabis worth around £100,000 has been recovered from a house in Queen’s Park, Bedford and two men arrested in an operation carried by Bedfordshire Police yesterday (Monday March 8).
Officers from the Drugs Intelligence Unit and Tasking Team executed the warrant at Chester Road and found 12 kg of good quality imported skunk. After finding the drugs but no-one at home, the officers laid in wait at the house and the two men were surprised to find detectives ready for them as they walked through the door.
It is the biggest cannabis seizure in Bedford for some time and is the latest set of arrests in a busy week for the intelligence unit. In the last seven days they have arrested eight people in planned operations for drugs offences and dealt with five others who were stopped by the ANPR unit with crack cocaine in their vehicle. Seven of these thirteen have been charged with various drug dealing offences, while the others are on bail pending further enquiries and one man has been cautioned.
On Monday (March 1) two men arrested near the Dane Street Post office in their car, with street deals of heroin worth £600 and £200 cash inside.
Covert observations by officers at Park Avenue in the town caught a man dealing heroin, and a separate warrant at Coventry Road resulted in a small amount of Cannabis being recovered and a man being cautioned.
Forty large wraps of heroin and cocaine worth about £800 were found in the sock of a man who tried to get away from officers after being spotted in Prebend Street on Friday (March 5) and a man seen with him was later arrested from a house in Bedford where drug dealing paraphernalia was found.
Last, but by no means least, crack cocaine worth £22,000, plus an imitation handgun, two stun guns, ammunition, machete, knife, baseball bat and dealing paraphernalia was found in a car stopped in Wilstead on February 25. As a result of this five men were arrested and two charged.
“It’s been an excellent week for taking drugs off the streets of Bedford,” said Det Sgt John Walters. “This is on top of the 32 arrests made across the county in the middle of February in Tackling Drugs Week.”
“These arrests have been made by a variety of means, some of it from information given to us by local residents & good police work. Even if we can’t necessarily act on every piece of information we receive, we do record all of it and this helps us build up an intelligence picture of what’s going on so that we can tackle drugs in the most effective way,” he said.
Anyone who would like to pass on information about this type of crime in their area can do so in a variety of ways – they can call their local Safer Neighbourhood Team via 01234 841212, drop in to one of the many surgeries held by Neighbourhood Officers round the county, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or text on 07786 200011.
