Pubs Against Drugs op hailed a success (From Mid Devon Star)

Pubs Against Drugs op hailed a success

7:00am Friday 30th April 2010 in News

POLICE seized a quantity of drugs during a large-scale operation in mid and east Devon on Saturday night.

Nine licensed premises were targeted in the Pubs Against Drugs (PADS) Operation carried out by officers from the Partners and Communities Together (PACT) Team, a dog handler, neighbourhood beat managers, special constables and licensing officers.

Drugs were only found in one of the pubs – in Cullompton – but officers declared the crackdown a success.

PC Jeff Howley, a member of the neighbourhood policing team in Cullompton, said: “The main message we were trying to get across was that anyone taking drugs in a public place is going to get caught.

“And people should be aware that further operations are planned.”

PS Julian Pezzani added: " It is quite a labour-intensive operation and we had over 20 staff involved.

“It has quite an impact when three large police vans roll into a town, but we endeavour to make people aware of why we are there and what we are doing.

“On the whole people are happy to see us, and were especially pleased to see the dog. “We searched a number of people, and have found both Class A and Class B drugs, and as a result a number of people have been dealt with accordingly.

“We also gathered some very useful intelligence from speaking to customers and the licensees who were all glad to see the police pro-actively tackling any drug use.

“Overall, we are fortunate that we do not have a huge drug problem in this area but by use of operations such as this, we will endeavour to keep it this way."