Crack Alley Drugsland

This programme contains very strong language

DISTANT SHOUTING

This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

WOMAN CHEERS

It's very uncomfortable being down there in the hours of darkness.

The area is extremely hostile.

Hepburn Road, they call it Crack Alley.

They're like, "What are you doing down Crack Alley?"

I was like, "We're trying to make it so that it's not Crack Alley, basically!"

HE LAUGHS

All units, for your information,

we're in a covert location on Hepburn Road.

He's just bought.

Another one out.

-All right?

-Oi!

Give me my spray out my bag.

Wait. Don't do anything yet, don't do anything.

We've got a dealing activity, Hepburn Lane.

That guy has just come out and attacked a user who's pissed up with a stick.

We haven't broken cover cos the guy's all right,

he's just pissed up and he's still stood here, shouting at the address.

There's tonnes of users in the lane.

There's four officers on.

If we go in there with not the right kit,

somebody will end up getting hurt.

There's a good job to be had here, it is just not tonight.

I know it's wrong and I know it's bad, but I do enjoy it.

A lot of things need to change in the way we treat

drugs in this city and in this country.

RADIO CHATTER

I have surgeons, I've got lawyers, I've got doctors,

a huge amount of young professionals.

Police! Come out the car, get out!

-Open your mouth.

-Don't swallow the drugs, spit them out.

I just told you, move.

People say, "Oh, you're so young, you shouldn't be doing it,"

or whatever. I'm just like,

"I'd rather do it now when I'm young and get it out the way."

If you've got money, I'll sell it to you.

If you're pregnant, I'll sell it to you.

This is the place everyone's coming to buy their drugs.

I'm a Easton boy, and when I go out to do a deal,

I can't go to St Paul's.

It's just a totally different scene, like.

They won't let you walk down the road.

They'll tell you to cross the road for the simple fact that they will

stash certain things in certain places.

If I tried selling down there, I'd get run out the ends, especially,

like, when it's a 6.5 foot tank bloke, like.

"Who do you think you're talking to?

"I'll punch your head in," and all that, like, "I'll cut your face open," like...

I'll have a fist fight if he wants to have a fist fight.

If he wants to use a weapon, I'll use a weapon.

All my older brothers used to kick the shit out of me when I was

younger to toughen me up. You can get yourself in sticky situations

and I've been in sticky situations where you get chucked in the boot of

a car or tied to trees, and...

It's kind of intimidation, the street dealing,

but it has to be, because what's stopping someone from just taking their stuff?

I wear sort of boxer shorts and then Y-fronts underneath.

They're uncomfortable, but you can keep your product down your trousers

without no-one knowing that it's there.

Nothing is falling out, like, nothing's going nowhere.

I've only got a little amount, cos if I sell that right now,

I can get that again right now,

but I don't want to have a big load, but they will.

I've gone down there and scored off

of them and they've pulled out, like, that, filled up with...

Like, there's... You could probably get 1,000 in there.

I would not be walking around with that, but they do.

The law side of it is, the police have just got to get lucky

the one time.

You've got to get lucky EVERY time.

Oh, he's dealing, he's putting items in his hand.

Back up.

-Yeah, look...

-He's on a bike.

-..he's just getting on his bike.

-He's got items in his hand.

-Who's with him? That's the guy

he just served up, so he's just walking off.

There you go. Blatant.

They've just sat on someone's front wall.

I mean, he's probably

one of 10, 15 people in an area of two square miles.

It's just rife and it does feel like a constant battle, it really does,

but at what point do you say that's acceptable,

that someone looking out of their front room window at 8:30

on a Friday night has got to contend with that?

You know, it's just not right. He's not clocked us at all, has he?

-We'll get CCTV to try and pick him up.

-Yeah.

When you look at something for long enough, you just get good at it.

Maybe it's because I grew up on a council estate, and you see a drug

dealer shuffling around, and you just get to know what it looks like.

There was more drug dealing and street robberies going on in a

couple of hundred metres of Hepburn Road than there is in any other part of this city.

-Can you take me to all the nice places?

-Oh, yeah.

-Really romantic, sat watching Crack Alley, keeping an eye on everyone.

-Yeah.

How's those chips working out for you?

-Quite nice, actually. How about you?

-Mm, good.

RUSTLING

So, while it's quiet and early,

shall we just go and have a little scout around and see if we can work

-out what it is they're doing for later on?

-Let's do it.

So many needles, wrappers...

They've got a clear run of the block of flats, I see, then.

And the door's just wide open.

See, look, all they've got to do is put a nice, big bag of rocks

down there, and either we'll never find it or we just won't even be

able to attribute it to anybody.

They literally just stash stuff anywhere.

I've had it before over in Easton where, you know, they've just had,

-like, a fag packet on the floor...

-Yeah.

-..and you go over and there's, like, 40 wraps in it.

-Yeah.

You know, all it, you know, something...

..so small that it just blends in with everything, especially here, where there's just rubbish.

-It's like finding a needle in a haystack.

-Yeah.

If you were the dealer, you could stand...

..you could stand out there, one eye looking up and looking around for police,

one eye looking for customers, and knowing where your stash is, and if

anyone goes near it, you can go and retrieve it.

-Four, five in the morning, there's hardly anyone walking down here.

-No.

-You're right out of the way.

Well, how easy is it to drag someone off the main Stokes Croft, rob them here or give them a bit of a

kicking, and then they're back out the way and they can just...

-They can just go straight in to...

-People shouting and screaming is quite normal round here.

-Not even going to get reported.

-So if that does happen to you, you've got no chance of it being called in.

Hello, you'll probably see, yeah, this is where the drug deals go down at night, and...

-Does it?

-I don't know, I'm asking you.

Funny how you're here.

Looks like you're looking for items.

-Huh?

-Looks like you're looking for items.

-Will I find any?

-What?

Will I find any?

I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine, isn't it?

I'll have a look round, then, mate.

Pathetic, man, I've never seen this before in my life.

What is it you want, items?

-Just seeing where...

-Why don't you just swoop on them when they're actually selling it?

Cos I've got an illness, I come here every fucking night and spend loads

of money on my drugs. I go out thieving every day.

They fucking cunts destroys my life.

If you want to fucking do something real,

instead of walking, like, around like zombies,

come at 12 o'clock when they sell drugs and destroy lives like mine, yeah?

Do you reckon if we take out the dealers, it'll make a difference?

Course it fucking will, there's no dealers, no idiots like me.

Listen, bang them up and take drugs off the street.

Bang every fucking one up.

Simple. Bang every cunt up.

He had a way with words, didn't he?

I can see why he's pissed off.

What he says marries right up with our intel, doesn't it?

-They're obviously so comfortable being down here, every single night it's going on...

-Yeah.

We need to work out who's organising...

It'll be one or two people organising it.

We know it's busy down there...

..and this is the place everyone's coming to buy their drugs,

but the name that keeps cropping up time after time is this Kemar Lewis.

We want to go after the drug dealers, the bad people.

We want to go after the people that commit violence in the community.

It's not about the users, not at all.

We are putting more and more people into treatment,

we're spending less and less police hours on dealing with possession of

drugs, and it feels like the relationship between the police and

drug users is getting better.

Actual police officers, I like them, they're pretty sound.

Like, they'll just pass me by.

As long as they're busy, they'll just say, "All right?"

or whatever, or check that no-one's bothering me and stuff.

Can you spare any change, please?

Where shall we go?

-Here.

-Yeah.

-See, round there?

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

Do some drugs.

-What is the drug?

-Er...

Yeah.

-Yeah, more than that. I've put in, I put in quite a lot.

-40.

-40, is it?

I think I prefer it more. Good.

Well, you can inject crack by itself.

If you do, like, you don't really seem to feel any effect.

You feel a little bit,

but even, like, the tiniest bit of brown in it will make the whole thing completely really different.

If there's more heroin, you're more likely to feel just... warm and, like, more relaxed.

-This was really good last week for, like, days in a row, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

SHE MUTTERS

-I won't be able to get myself now, will I?

-Oh, you should do.

I've been struggling.

SHE SNIFFS

Get, like, £10 for like roughly 0.1 of either, like, crack or heroin,

and then you get three or five of them for 25.

It depends what each day's like for earning money, but...

Like, today, I've...

..shared, like, two lots of £25 deals...

..with people.

It's better than the stuff I could only get this morning.

I'm going to leave you to it, all right?

-All right.

-See you later, though.

I've been around crack and heroin since I was, like, 15, 16, like,

I somehow ended up with lots of heroin addict friends from a young

age, and when I was doing it for fun, I could do it occasionally, and

I thought that I'd never get addicted to it.

This is the third time I've had a habit.

I came up to Bristol to get clean in the summer and I stayed clean for a

few months, but, yeah, it didn't take long to start finding it again.

People say, "Oh, you're so young, you shouldn't be doing it," or

whatever, it's like, "I'd rather do it now when I'm young and get it out the way."

It's real moreish when you do it.

While you're on it, you'll definitely, like, want more.

When I first, like, started using in Bristol,

it was quite hard for me to find dealers to...

..serve me cos you have to get, like, a friend to...

..er, like...

..give you, like, the dealer's number and then speak to them and

say that, you know, you're safe, and, you know...

..you know, um, you're OK to buy off them.

I guess there must be, like, at least, like, 200 dealers,

but there's a sort of different levels of dealer, isn't there?

People that sell ten bags and stuff.

There's a place down a sort of, down a little alleyway, like, a little, tiny little road and,

yeah, there's a big fence, you go up, sort of shout, like,

call through and someone will come out...

and hundreds of people know about this place you can just go to, like, literally...

..80% of the fucking heroin addicts in Bristol know.

They start real late at night and then they're serving, just, like,

a constant stream of people, basically.

I've only been there just with someone that knew the guys, and I...

or, he said that he knew them, and then

we got chased away by a... with a baseball bat!

Loads of people out, isn't there?

-Busy, busy.

-We're now at the witching hour.

HE LAUGHS

Hepburn Road evolves into the beast.

LAUGHTER

Cometh the hour, cometh the crack.

LAUGHTER

Gather round nice and tight to the computer, please,

because it's small.

Gather in, gather in, gather in.

Right, this area of Hepburn Road, which is a courtyard,

has been identified as a crime hot spot.

A scoping profile has been done, which is this one here.

In the last 18 months or so,

there has been 2,700 crimes reported in the area where we're going to be operating tonight.

And in, obviously, quite a few offences,

they've had knives put to their bodies

as they've been relieved of their property.

Although, I say we've got a number of reported offences, actually,

I think that we don't know the half of it.

We've got new students coming into the city. If they're going down

there and they're getting robbed, they're not going to report it to the police.

There's two or three meeters and greeters that are out speaking to people,

asking if they want drugs, and they're then luring them down into the lane.

You see people with flashlights, calling people up and down the lane.

And, if they get a response, they'll then go down and they'll score.

Hepburn Road itself is a small road that runs from Stokes Croft,

where thousands of people on a weekend will go and drink and enjoy themselves.

So, you've got the associated recreational drug activities on one

side of Hepburn Road...

And then at the other end you've got St Paul's,

where we've got a high density of problematic drug users,

who are fuelling the crack cocaine and heroin market.

You effectively bring those two forces together,

and you arrive in the middle of Hepburn Road.

And that is why you have a number of drug dealers at any one time...

fuelling that drugs market.

We know that there was a GBH about a month ago or six weeks ago,

where somebody had their head stamped on and they were very seriously injured,

but we think that that person was down there buying class A drugs.

So, having been down there myself

and seen some violence on behalf of the dealers towards some of the

users, we know that there is a lot of fear and intimidation going on down there.

All the intelligence suggests that they're so confident they've got

the drugs on them and they just take orders through the fence,

and they're serving up through the fence and a nice little orderly queue forms.

I've done some checking today and overnight, last night,

both security lights have been smashed.

So, it's dark and dingy, and

last night was very busy in that location.

Is it worth getting a picture of Kemar Lewis up?

Cos all the recent intel we've had from people that have been down

there scoring suggests that he is one of the main dealers down there.

He's quite a, sort of, violent, aggressive bloke, as well, and...

Yeah, he's pretty lairy, and he's quite, sort of, handy as well.

OK. I think we've really got to be mindful that...

..you know, it's an unknown quantity.

It's very dark down there, they have got access to weapons and that will

all form part of your, sort of, decision-making when you deploy into them.

But that's a matter for you guys.

I'm going to speak to Finn now and get a preauthorised Taser authority.

And then we will go from there.

-Everybody happy?

-Yeah.

Right, let's go and bring home the bacon.

Because we're the pigs.

As the sergeant, you're slightly nervous,

because you're putting staff into a potentially volatile situation.

It is a massive unknown when you deploy into areas like Hepburn Road.

You just don't know what's going to happen, if it's all going to go really well,

you don't know if people are going to make off, fight you, if they're going to be compliant,

if you're going to come away with a really good result,

if you're going to come away with nothing.

It's all up in the air.

Police! Stay where you are.

Police! Stay where you are.

Open the front door! Police!

Open the front door! Police!

Out the car, now.

Police! Get out!

-Get on the floor!

-Get out!

-Get on the floor!

SHOUTING

Get on the floor!

-Put your hands behind your back, now.

-Give me your hands, now!

Give me your hands.

Give me your hands.

SHOUTING

-Hands behind your back!

-Don't move, get down.

-All right.

-Yeah.

-Let me check, let me check, let me check, open your hand.

I just come here to see my...to see him.

You haven't been arrested, you've just been detained for a search.

We're searching for drugs, OK?

Look, as you can see, I come out, I come out to go...

I appreciate that. Sit up, sit up, and stand up.

One, two, three, go on. That's it.

Just wait there, get into that car.

-You've got money everywhere.

-Yeah, I come out clubbing.

I gamble, my friend.

You can ask my lady, she works in the bookie's.

We're just going to go up there and have a little drink now, and then I feel that in my face and everything.

-With Kemar, we've got a knife on him?

-Yeah.

-What sort of knife is it?

-It's a flick knife.

-And where did he have it?

-In his pocket.

-Well, just lock him up for it...

-Yeah.

..and then we'll go from there.

-Which way have they gone?

-They're going to come that end.

-All right, mate, if you...

-Buddy, walk this

-way.

-Yeah, we'll see you. We'll walk up, on Stokes Croft.

-Foil-lined.

-Oh, well done, you.

-Oh, well done.

Crisp packet. It looks like they've foil-lined it with little slices of cannabis.

There's got to be more, but it's whether it's on them.

They're not just going to be down here selling weed, but...

-Are they going to really leave a massive bag of crack and heroin, just out to get washed away?

-No.

-I reckon, if anything, they've got it on them or they've swallowed it.

-Yeah, definitely.

-So...

-He had a lot of money on him, didn't he?

-He had loads of money.

Right, let's get back to the nick, then.

They're not just down there fucking selling weed.

I'm hoping one of them's got 50 wraps down their pants.

That's what I'm hoping.

If they've swallowed drugs, they've swallowed drugs and they're lost. Can't do anything.

Well, Kemar Lewis, the intelligence has continued to come in about him,

and that suggests that he's actually involved in the dealing,

not just on Hepburn Road, Stokes Croft, but in St Paul's itself in quite a big way.

So I think he's higher up the food chain than we first thought.

I just need to check where Faz has found the weed.

So she's got, like, a foil-lined crisp packet, with, like, individual bags of weed in it.

So I think it was found in the back seat, so if it is, your man's going to have to get locked up.

I think, Kemar's probably going to have the stash on him, as well, when he gets strip-searched.

-Do you reckon?

-Yeah. I think he's...Kemar's the ringleader, isn't he?

-Yeah.

And he's got burners on him, has he?

Yeah, he's got two.

Go and lock him up, and then have his phones off him.

Cool.

Is there any update from the strip-search?

Yeah, sorry, mate. I told Ivan that was a flat-out negative.

OFF-SCREEN: Oh, fuck's sake.

Yeah, received, thank you.

No.

Nothing at all.

Where are the drugs?!

Right. That's the end of that.

He's going to get bail.

I'm not fazed about the police. I'm not worried about them,

I'm not scared about them.

If I do see the police, I'll just chuck it

as far and as wide as I can. Or, if

I've got a big amount, I will run,

stash it and distance myself from it.

If I don't get the chance...

..unfortunately, it will be going up my arse crack.

Yo.

What, do you want two Bs and two whites?

All right. How long?

All right, I'll see you in five, all right?

Yeah, I've got to run off in a minute.

Ah, fuck sake.

Doesn't even fucking work.

I have this problem every fucking time.

Back in business.

Like, I normally work as part of a team.

Like, my friend, he would be in the trap house with the things,

I'd tell him what needs to go when the phone call comes,

I'd go to the secret trap house, collect what needs to be collected,

go do the deal, go drop it off.

Having a habit doesn't help.

Cos you get yourself in debt, right, so you think, like,

when I go like that and put it on, that's like a tenner,

so it does accumulate quickly.

If I'd picked up on the night-time and stayed up on the

night, in the morning I could have nothing.

I could smoke it all, easily.

I've sat there and smoked an ounce.

An ounce is like, 500, 600 quid.

Every day's different.

8:30, the phone goes on.

Some days your phone could ring 200 times.

Sometimes your phone could ring once.

I've probably got about...

between five and ten people I can go see myself.

Like, the main guy, he's really nice.

Spare any change, please, sir?

Thank you.

He always calls me Abby. There's a few dealers like that,

they just can't seem to understand my name, like...

He said to me a little while ago,

he said, "I see you as a friend now, not just a customer."

That was quite nice.

SHE LAUGHS

Thank you. See you later.

But if I don't ring him for a few days, he'll be like, "Oh, where have you been?"

He's just got a bucket. Big, like, building bucket in his living room,

just like full of change. Full of

all, but, like, pound coins as well, like...

You know, thousands and thousands of pounds in change.

Hey, you all right?

Yeah, it's Safi.

I'm down town at the minute, harbour side.

Yeah.

Oh, glass boat? Oh, sweet.

OK, cool. Yeah, I'll be, like, 5, 10 minutes.

Two Bs and a white, I think.

Yeah, two Bs and a white.

When you ring them, you've got to be, like, pretty non-blatant.

Instead of saying, like, heroin and crack, you sort of say, like, "Two Bs and a white."

12.30.

If you've got money, I'll sell it to you.

If you're pregnant, I'll sell it to you.

I like money, innit?

Who doesn't?

I get paid for cutting it up for people, paid for cooking it for

people, paid for selling it.

I've made £1,000 in a day, easy.

That's a £10 bill, crack cocaine.

0.1, so that works out at £100 a gram.

And it's two for 15.

It's a little bit under, but...

Shit happens, innit?

And then this is the heroin.

Not a lot of people come for the B.

They'll buy, like, one or two.

But the crack, they can come for 100 in a day if they've got the money.

You can tell by the way it's wrapped quite often cos, like, the dealers, like, they're real...

It's like, professional, like, wrapping, really.

They sell, like, 500, like, individual items or something a day.

Some of them, they must... I think they probably pay someone, like, just to wrap it alone.

Definitely the best stuff that's around town, I reckon.

Ah!

The person who gets it, he must pay a lot more for it.

Loads, loads, loads more.

He lives in London.

Way out the way.

If you get better quality, it's definitely worth having smaller sizes.

Right, so...

This was the guy that was arrested opposite McDonald's.

-He's from London, he's just speaking to as many people as he possibly can.

-Yeah.

Obviously, this is 20 minutes prior to his arrest,

so what he's doing, he's talking to people and just saying,

"Have you got a cigarette?" and then they engage him in conversation and then, showing his mobile number,

then he goes across Stokes Croft and he's just approaching students all the time.

What we have is a new picture developing of drug dealers coming in

from other areas with high purities of drugs.

Individuals from other cities arrive in different places and start up new

dealing lines, and this is called county lines.

A phone number will be called a particular name and that name will follow that line.

PHONE DINGS

So drug users will say, "Today, I'm scoring off X Man," or

"Today, I'm scoring off Striker."

PHONE DINGS

It suddenly expands and then you've got a new line into a community.

I think in the space of ten minutes, he's give out his number three or four times.

And then he heads into Cabot Circus and he's doing the same over there.

-So...

-Yeah.

He's a busy boy.

It's just like a business.

You can't think of it than anything

else where you see an opportunity and you take it.

You've got a new dealer.

They've come down on the train or they've come down on the motorway

with a huge amount of Class A drugs on them.

They're speaking to drug users, saying,

"If you give me five more names of your mates that are drug dependent,

"I will give you two wraps of crack cocaine for your trouble,

"and while you're trying it,

"tell everyone else how good it is because this is real high purity."

And, generally speaking, it is.

We've had lads from Birmingham and London recently, all over

St Paul's and in Easton,

that don't know the areas and the rules and who knows who.

And actually, there will start being conflict because, at the moment,

people generally stick to their own little areas because they've got a

good thing going there - but you get other people moving in,

that's where you get the conflict.

Well, they're an unknown quantity, aren't they?

Mmm. Yeah, it is a bit worrying.

When we identify county lines,

we make it as hostile as we can for them, so that they don't see Bristol

as an opportunity. We're all over it.

SIREN WAILS

RADIO CHATTER

Somebody's just pressed their emergency button at Kingsmarsh House.

That's where we suspect county lines are happening.

CARS HONK

RADIO CHATTER

-He may have discarded stuff round there.

-Oh!

-Best thing is...

-Right.

'Man in black joggers, black kit, black hat...'

HE MOANS

-..the wind in your eyes.

-OK, so basically...

-OK, just some water, then, at least?

ALL SPEAK AT ONCE

Where did he have this?

Apparently Ben walked up to him, they just started scrapping with him straightaway.

Ben said they were just...

He started punching James,

so they managed to get him on the floor and get him sprayed,

he's obviously dropped that.

That's what we're dealing with.

We've just got to work out...

They're going to have a flat in here somewhere.

KNOCK ON DOOR

Hello, sir. It's the police. Can you open the door, please?

Hello. All right?

-I'm Sergeant Green from Trinity Road.

-Oh, hi there.

There's just been an incident down by the foyer,

where a guy's been arrested, potentially for a dealing offence.

-He's got a knife on him as well, but we know they've come from a flat in here.

-Oh, I see.

Bearing in mind there was that situation last time where there was drug users...

-drug dealers held up in here, I thought I'd come have a chat.

-That's fine.

-Is anybody in here at the moment?

-There is someone in here, but there's no drugs.

-OK.

-I've got three in a flat.

-All right.

Just put some handcuffs on you while I search you. I'm Sergeant Green from Trinity Road.

-The reason why you're being searched is because there's a whopping smell of cannabis.

-Where you from?

London? Oh, OK.

-Where's he from?

-London.

This is not right, is it?

Where are you from, mate?

It feels a bit like deja vu here.

-Where are you from?

-London.

-Got anything on you you shouldn't have?

RADIO BEEPS

-Can you confirm that the window I'm waving out of, is that by the ambulance?

-Yeah, brilliant.

Yeah, that would be a prime location for...

RADIO BEEPS

Yeah, so I want you to take a picture if you can on your job phone.

How much crack and heroin we got?

About... I think maybe there's probably about ten wraps of heroin

and an...ounce of crack.

An ounce.

So this is looking like the county lines.

I mean, you've got guys down here from London.

There's been a big old fuss downstairs where the guy's just been arrested.

And you've got a drug user here who's obviously got a pretty bad addiction,

so he'll potentially be getting a few items a day to allow these to

serve up out of his flat.

These aren't down from London to do charity work in Bristol, are they?

-I know these people...

-No, I...

-I've known them a long time, they're just friends of mine.

-We just smoke cannabis and stuff.

-I really don't accept that at all.

-I don't accept that at all.

-Well, they're not selling from the flat,

-that's a fact.

-They're not...

They're not your friends. They're not your friends.

They're not here in Bristol for any other good reason than to sell drugs, in my opinion, right?

But they're here... They're not here in my flat to sell drugs, I promise you that.

Cuckooing is a reasonably new concept.

The dealers will identify a vulnerable individual that has an

address, and it's right in the heart of where all the drugs are bought and sold.

The more time they spend indoors with a stash of drugs,

the less chance they've got of being caught.

And that vulnerable person that's inside will, generally speaking,

have a drug addiction, and they will be offered drugs for every day that

they allow their place to be used.

If you think about it, in the beginning that probably seems like an attractive offer, doesn't it?

The fact that your habit will get paid for, free,

just by having a couple of guys sit in your front room.

But the consequences are far-reaching.

And I've seen it all too often when that attractive offer

becomes a very sinister scenario.

You're all under arrest for possession with intent to supply a controlled drug.

You're concerned in the supply of drugs.

A large amount of drugs has been thrown out the window, OK,

which has been found downstairs.

You're here in Bristol, you've got

no reason to be here in Bristol, you're in a drug user's flat.

You're not his friend. I believe you're involved in the supply of drugs.

You don't have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you don't mention when questioned

something you later rely on in court. Anything you say may be given in evidence. OK?

There you go, mate, in that lift.

These people want to be out of the way of the police and they want to

build up a portfolio of cuckooed addresses that they can move around

to every few days so that they can frustrate the police.

RADIO CHATTER

Certain people are in bad places and, who knows,

a year down the line they'll come

out of the other end of it and they'll get back into recovery.

We don't see them as the root of all evils,

we see them as people with drug habits who need to be helped.

I'm not arresting you,

I'm not putting you in the cells,

and I'm giving you an opportunity to change your life.

SEAGULLS SQUAWK

At the minute, I can tell I'm already getting a bit bored of the cycle, this way of living, like.

I haven't been doing that much begging, well, not as much begging as...

..normal, recently. Well, I got moved on from my spot,

so I can't sleep there any more.

People complained to the police and I can't stay there, so I'd rather just not stay there.

I have to go out and beg somewhere else.

I don't get anywhere near as much money.

Last night it took me, like, over three hours to get, like, £6.50...

which is ridiculous.

But then some days I'll go out stealing stuff, like today.

Just any phone gadget things and...

..headphones and electrical stuff. Er...

..scissors.

A lot of my veins that I would have used, like, before, like, you know,

when I first started, I can't really use now.

I have the odd day every few weeks

where I really struggle to get a vein.

And I had a bad day last week, and my feet...

But, like, yeah...

Little bits where I've missed the vein and you get these big lumps

and it really fucking hurts.

Especially on your feet, obviously, cos you're walking on them, and...

Yeah, it really hurts.

Yeah, when I was younger and I was...

Well, even, well, for years until I actually started injecting, really,

I did tell myself and everyone else

that I wouldn't start injecting drugs.

I'd seen, like, you know, my friends with their abscesses and, like, how it...

Well, some of them, how it proper changed them as a person, into...

You know, like, my friend, she became a prostitute and, like, stuff

to, like, you know, um, to fund her habit.

And, like, other people that, it made them into...

Well, you know, took away their morals, really.

In the next, like, month, I'm going to get clean, properly clean,

and I'm going to get... I want to get an apprenticeship or something,

doing motor bike mechanics and restoration,

or do a couple college courses,

and do my own business, and that.

That's my plan, yeah, for the beginning of summer.

Yeah.

-OVER RADIO:

-Green, just so you know,

he's out of the flat and into Gwyn Street.

I'm into Hepburn Road now.

Just the two males. One may be female.

Fucking hell. Have I got enough staff to do this?

Right, can you confirm you've got Kemar Lewis on Hepburn Road?

We have Kemar Lewis leaning against the fence.

Black North Face jacket, hoodie underneath, hood up, dark trousers.

He has done a hand-to-hand deal.

The user has placed it in his mouth and walked away.

We're going to do a strike.

We are turning left, left, left into Hepburn Road.

Just grab whoever you can.

BANG

-On the floor, sir!

-Police!

-Police, police!

-Police!

-Police!

Police! Police!

OK, guys?

-Up here.

-Do you want a drugs bag?

-Please.

Hang on.

So Kemar is detained where?

-In the stairwell, literally just there.

-He's detained down there. They've managed to make it to the

top, so all this area is game-on, even this bit,

because they could have just shut the door, too.

BANGING

There's a hole downstairs.

You've got access here...

-This goes out?

-..down into the courtyard and to the fence.

-Does it? Let's have a look.

-Look.

-It will all make sense when you go out there.

-See where that is?

-Oh, yeah.

And this... I think this could be...

You know, do you remember we saw...

Serving up here originally, yeah.

Mmm!

The plot thickens.

If they've ran in and they've panicked, they've had 30 seconds straight...

-There's nowhere to get rid of it up there...

-No.

-..unless you swallow it or put it down your pants.

-Yeah.

-So...

We've got one bag of wraps, anyway, haven't we? So...

We've got Kemar Lewis in handcuffs.

But have we got enough evidence to forensically link him to the drug package and then prove a supply job?

I don't think we're there.

Obviously, we found a decent stash of drugs...

..but it was under that, it was under

a step in a communal area, so

unless there's forensic opportunities,

which more often than not

there isn't on really, really small packaging,

like around wraps, then we're going to struggle to link that job to him, so, um...

It's just going to be really difficult to prove.

He's going to make bail.

In terms of securing a conviction against a drug dealer,

the burden of proof is huge.

The jury has to believe beyond all reasonable doubt that that

individual has supplied drugs on the streets of Bristol.

Evidentially, we have to see the exchange.

We have to follow them, and not lose them to sight,

and we have to detain them in possession of the drugs.

As you can see from the footage, got a male there and they're using

the torch from the mobile phone just to see what they're doing.

So the female user there,

she's just looking down on the vehicle at the moment,

sort of picking up the smaller items.

And what are you...

Cos last time when we come down in the vehicles, there was a lot of

activity on the forecourt where you're looking at now.

But they're really hypersensitive to every car that came past, and I

think that's how we lost our element of surprise.

So...

How has that developed?

When a car pulls in here,

it gets illuminated and they're ducking behind the front part

of the vehicle out of view.

So our guy, Kemar Lewis, he's featured again, has he?

It appears so, yeah. It's difficult with the ID, cos it's so dark

down there, but it certainly would appear.

I mean, that would be a good possibility for Kemar there.

It's not as simple as being as clear-cut as someone's committed a

criminal offence and the police will go after them.

Certain individuals haven't started their life out saying,

"I'm going to be a drug dealer, and I'm going to stand in a horrible

"dark corner of a lane and I'm going to sell drugs to people."

There's more to Kemar Lewis than being a drug dealer.

Who knows what is going on in his life?

Who knows the other people that he's supporting?

You know, perhaps other people are relying on him to go out and make that money.

And it may be that the first couple of times you make bail,

but take that as your chance to go and do something different, and

change your life while you can.

And I think that we will get to a point with him where if he doesn't

take that opportunity, we will catch him red-handed, and it will almost

be a sense of, "Well, surely you saw the writing on the wall."

"This was only going ever going to go one way and now is going to

"result in you going to prison, potentially for a really long time."

So I guess that's the frustration, really.

As long as you're sneaky and you're sly and you keep your wits about

yourself, and you're aware of your surroundings and you know what's

going on, like, you've got quite a big choice of where to put it, basically.

In the day, it's at my house normally.

But at night it's in different places every time.

Like, I did have some across the road and buried it and I had a

little stick poking out the ground, like, um, like a Irn-Bru can.

Crack it a couple of times, snap it, put it inside,

bend it over so it looks like it's just been stood on, and then just

fucking dash it in a bush.

So everyone can see it as they walk past, but no-one knows what's in it.

-PERSON OUTSIDE:

-Oi!

Ah...

People say I'm paranoid.

Paranoia is being aware of what's around you, and I've been doing what

I've been doing ten years.

Like, so... I've never been to jail.

They've got bigger fish to fry than me.

That's what I'm hoping, anyway.

They've got bigger fish to fry. They want the people above me.

SIRENS WAIL

Tonight is our last opportunity to take out Kemar Lewis,

but let's try and make it count, because if it doesn't happen

tonight then we'll have to give it to another unit.

OK?

As we all know, with drug suppliers we really have to catch them right

in it with items on them, not two yards away.

So, till I'm sure that somebody has got something in their pocket or

it's blatant and we're on, then I'm not going to call it.

It might be a long night but we'll just wait and see how it goes.

We'll come as a pack, we'll come down on foot and we'll take Kemar Lewis.

They're very twitchy.

They're running scared that the police are watching them.

And they've moved off that hardstanding and they've moved even

further, down to Hepburn Road.

We're going to be a group of partygoers heading into the lane.

And the first time that those dealers know that we're there is

when we're on top of them.

-RADIO:

-From CCTV I couldn't get a decent enough look at his face.

But it did look a bit like Kemar Lewis.

The one in the black coat and the blue hoodie is the one that you

think potentially is Kemar.

I couldn't say, "Yes, it was him."

What do we do?

He doesn't know 100% if it's him, does he?

Well, two out of three say it might be him.

Get on the floor! Police!

-Get your arms out. Get your arms out, now!

-No!

-Put your arm out or you're getting sprayed.

-Wraps on the floor.

Somebody look in his mouth and tell me if there's any wraps in there, please.

-Open your mouth. If you don't open your mouth, you're getting sprayed in the eyes.

-He's not opening it.

-Right, behind the ear, pressure point.

-Pressure point.

-Open your... He's not opening.

Kemar, Kemar, this is for your safety.

Don't swallow the drugs, just spit them out.

We've caught you with it loading already, open your mouth.

-Is he taking air in?

-Yeah.

-Open your mouth.

-Yeah, he's resisting, still.

Open your mouth, Kemar.

-Listen...

-Kemar.

-Kemar, don't swallow the drugs.

-Open your mouth.

-Kemar, it's for your safety, buddy, spit them out.

Spit them out.

MUFFLED SHOUTING

Right. Right, let's just play a waiting game, guys.

-Spit them out.

-Spit them out.

-He's done it.

-He swallowed them.

-He's swallowing.

-I think he swallowed.

-He's chewing them, he's chewing them.

-He's chewing them up.

-Yeah.

-Can someone give me some more spray, please?

-Yeah. What, spray?

-Right you are.

-No, no, no, no, no.

-Do his neck, if you do his neck...

There we go, there we go, there we go.

We've got him. Get him away, get him away, get him away.

Pull him back. Pull him back, pull him back.

Right, you're under arrest for being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.

You don't have to speak, but it may harm your defence if you

don't mention something which you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

Open your mouth nice and wide, there. Nice and wide. Nice and wide.

-Get them all out. That's it, get them all out.

-Spit it out.

-That's it.

-Is that it?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Under your tongue, show me under your tongue?

-That's it.

-OK.

-That's it.

-Right. Hang on.

-Sit him up, get some air into his lungs.

-Are you done?

-Yeah, we're done.

-Right, hang on.

-Right, get some air into your lungs.

You know, him going round just trying to find loose wraps just sums

up what we're dealing with down here, and it's sad, isn't it?

He never started life that way, he never...

it was never written for him that he was going to be down at three

o'clock in the morning, under dim torchlight, trying to find wraps to feed his habit.

That first night that we come down and we identified...

the openness of the drug market, I think, it just demonstrates...

..the last few months, how busy the drug market is in Bristol,

just how many drug-dependent individuals that we've got, and

the lengths that the drug dealers are willing to take to meet that demand.

You know, tonight, we've taken out Kemar Lewis

and we've come down and caught him red-handed, and that is a good feeling.

You know, that's what, that's what we're in the game for, isn't it,

to take people out that harm the community and make them pay for what they've done.

But now we need to look at what we're going to do long-term.

How are we going to make this area better?

How are we going to make people feel safe walking through this area?

How's it going to look different?

And it's all those issues that are going to make this area feel different,

not just what we've done tonight.

Yo!

He's just about to serve up.

All right? Police.

-All right? Police.

-Yeah, police.

PHONE RINGS

Yo.

What?

All right, I'll see you in five, all right?

There will always be...

consumers for it.

If I didn't do it, someone else would.

PHONE RINGS

Yo. Two and one, yeah?

Meet you same place, make sure you come on your own, though, innit?

PHONE RINGS

Yeah, what is it you needed?

Yeah, I can come down for two, but I'm not coming out for one, fuck that.

PHONE RINGS

Yo. No, I've only got three and one left.

You'll have to wait till I re-up, or do you just want that?

PHONE RINGS

Yo.

For a free poster with information about drugs and their effects on

society, call...

..or go to the address below and

follow the links for the Open University.