Plain clothes police tackle drug dealers in Westcliff

11:00am Thursday 14th March 2013 in Local News

Police use uniformed officers alongside plain clothes operation Police use uniformed officers alongside plain clothes operation

PLAIN clothes police have been operating near Westcliff Library to catch drug pushers.

They have launched Operation Doublet following a series of calls about dealers using bicycles and in cars.

Many have been darting in and out of alleyways off St George’s Park Drive to sell both class A drugs and cannabis.

The operation has seen more than 30 stop-checks carried out on suspects by non-uniformed officers since mid-February.

But they have also been bolstered by uniformed patrols to act as a deterrent.

A call to the neighbourhood policing phone number quoting the index number of a car has already yielded some positive results. P

olice managed to get to the scene within minutes and found heroin and crack cocaine in a car.

A woman received a caution because only small amounts were found.

Insp Brad Dickel, of Leigh police, said: “We’ve seen a very recent increase in drug-related calls reporting to the neighbourhood policing team in Westcliff, in particular around Westcliff Library and St George’s Park Drive with the dealers making use of the alleyways, very frequently covertly in plain clothes to combat this problem.

“We’ve seen some real success around driving these people out of this area.”

Police thanked local residents for their information and urged them to keep calling on the neighbourhood policing mobile phone on 07816661693.

Comments(21)

jayman says...
11:11am Thu 14 Mar 13

i think the copper needs to attend some remedial 'plain clothes' training. LOL

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perini says...
11:21am Thu 14 Mar 13

St Georges Park AVENUE even - Echo geography at it's best!

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supermadmax says...
11:37am Thu 14 Mar 13

I doubt bragging in the press is the most effective way of launching an undercover operation such as "Operation Doublet".

It would also appear they have had no success in the past month. The lady cautioned for heroin was as a result of an unrelated call to the public.

They should have put a hidden camera in the ally, to get evidence & catch them in the act.

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Not A Native says...
11:53am Thu 14 Mar 13

supermadmax wrote:
I doubt bragging in the press is the most effective way of launching an undercover operation such as "Operation Doublet".

It would also appear they have had no success in the past month. The lady cautioned for heroin was as a result of an unrelated call to the public.

They should have put a hidden camera in the ally, to get evidence & catch them in the act.
What if the ally didn't want a camera inserted into them?

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Sean4u says...
12:01pm Thu 14 Mar 13

"quoting the index number of a car"
How did the witness get the VIN?

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Basildon_Boy says...
12:09pm Thu 14 Mar 13

If they did this in Basildon they would have a right result. I used to sell drugs about 5 years ago throughtout Basildon, in the dodgiest places too. Never once saw undercover cops! Maybe I was just lucky!

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westborough resident says...
12:18pm Thu 14 Mar 13

The police will need to keep their patrols up. The residents reported drug dealing at the top of St Georges Park Av since the beginning of November. It took several months of repeated calls before the police took any real action. Once they did step up patrols the dealing stopped, but it resumed again in early Feb, and stopped once more the police started to regularly patrol the area again.

Unfortunately most of the time the police send PCSOs, they can only take names and addresses, and the majority of these criminals are not going to give their real details.

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emcee says...
1:10pm Thu 14 Mar 13

Why the photo? We all know what a police officer looks like. Do the Echo have to justify having a photograper on staff by publishing a certain quota of photos per financial year?

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How-ironic says...
1:15pm Thu 14 Mar 13

Basildon_Boy wrote:
If they did this in Basildon they would have a right result. I used to sell drugs about 5 years ago throughtout Basildon, in the dodgiest places too. Never once saw undercover cops! Maybe I was just lucky!
Was you taking these drugs as well, because how do you know if you saw an undercover cop or not??

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Soouthchurch59 says...
1:27pm Thu 14 Mar 13

Tommy 'ten bags' Tucker and his faithful terrier 'KILO' say: "Thanks for the info"...

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DogsMessInLeigh says...
1:48pm Thu 14 Mar 13

Sean4u wrote:
"quoting the index number of a car"
How did the witness get the VIN?
Index numbers are the Registered number given to vehicle by the DVLA, many official places inc the Police and vehicle orientated businesses use the term 'index number'....failing that many vehicles have the VIN (vehicle id number/chassis number) displayed in the corner of the windscreen....so the witness may have got close enough to write down the many digits to the VIN...but more than likely it was the Index number (reg number) in this case.

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Basildon_Boy says...
1:51pm Thu 14 Mar 13

How-ironic wrote:
Basildon_Boy wrote:
If they did this in Basildon they would have a right result. I used to sell drugs about 5 years ago throughtout Basildon, in the dodgiest places too. Never once saw undercover cops! Maybe I was just lucky!
Was you taking these drugs as well, because how do you know if you saw an undercover cop or not??
nope I don't take drugs, I just sold them. I only started dealing to pay off my car and insurance. Luckily I knew the contacts.

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Nebs says...
2:26pm Thu 14 Mar 13

Basildon_Boy wrote:
How-ironic wrote:
Basildon_Boy wrote:
If they did this in Basildon they would have a right result. I used to sell drugs about 5 years ago throughtout Basildon, in the dodgiest places too. Never once saw undercover cops! Maybe I was just lucky!
Was you taking these drugs as well, because how do you know if you saw an undercover cop or not??
nope I don't take drugs, I just sold them. I only started dealing to pay off my car and insurance. Luckily I knew the contacts.
Hope you notified your insurance company about your income from drug dealing, otherwise they might invalidate your policy.

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DrSpiffSpaffington says...
2:45pm Thu 14 Mar 13

Housing benefit cuts, all the problems from the city are being shifted out into essex, it will only get worse. Give it 5 years and we will have police units to deal with gang crime and shootings all over the county

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zipster31 says...
3:48pm Thu 14 Mar 13

What's the point if they are only given a caution for selling heroin and cannabis? They will only have a small amount on them when dealing as they know they will get away with it when caught. Policing and the law failing the people.

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Basildon_Boy says...
4:50pm Thu 14 Mar 13

Nebs wrote:
Basildon_Boy wrote:
How-ironic wrote:
Basildon_Boy wrote:
If they did this in Basildon they would have a right result. I used to sell drugs about 5 years ago throughtout Basildon, in the dodgiest places too. Never once saw undercover cops! Maybe I was just lucky!
Was you taking these drugs as well, because how do you know if you saw an undercover cop or not??
nope I don't take drugs, I just sold them. I only started dealing to pay off my car and insurance. Luckily I knew the contacts.
Hope you notified your insurance company about your income from drug dealing, otherwise they might invalidate your policy.
That copper there looks as if he has had a right result with all the cocaine he has seized.

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WhateverS says...
5:17pm Thu 14 Mar 13

That copper looks like that no-neck thing out of Dr Who

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shaun1965 says...
8:12pm Thu 14 Mar 13

poison the drugs that they seize then put it back out on the street, the best drug user is a dead drug user.

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another council tax payer says...
8:26pm Thu 14 Mar 13

shaun1965 wrote:
poison the drugs that they seize then put it back out on the street, the best drug user is a dead drug user.
you have won **** of the week

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Not A Native says...
9:16pm Thu 14 Mar 13

shaun1965 wrote:
poison the drugs that they seize then put it back out on the street, the best drug user is a dead drug user.
Yeah ok, we'll do the poisoning but only on condition that I have a little electrical doohickey, wired up to the interweb which I can use to electrocute people with every keystroke they make whilst they are making idiotic calls for the authorities to murder the population.

Deal?

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CaptainBlackadder says...
10:53am Fri 15 Mar 13

Basildon_Boy wrote:
How-ironic wrote:
Basildon_Boy wrote:
If they did this in Basildon they would have a right result. I used to sell drugs about 5 years ago throughtout Basildon, in the dodgiest places too. Never once saw undercover cops! Maybe I was just lucky!
Was you taking these drugs as well, because how do you know if you saw an undercover cop or not??
nope I don't take drugs, I just sold them. I only started dealing to pay off my car and insurance. Luckily I knew the contacts.
'low','life' and 'scum' are the words that spring to mind...........

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