East City Neighbourhood Policing Team delighted with result following a search warrant in July 2011.

As the city recovered from the festivities of the ‘Big Weekend’ event during the summer, your Neighbourhood Policing Team were working on some ‘hot intelligence’ which had been received. Following a visit to Cambridge Magistrates Court a search warrant was issued under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, for an address in New Street, Cambridge, on the Petersfield Ward.

On Thursday of that week officers assembled at Parkside, and a briefing was given. As is usual with action of this nature, several matters need to be considered in order to minimise any potential risk. Are there any children likely to be at the address? Have the suspected occupants exhibited violence to police before? How will we gain access? Will there be any traps? What equipment will we need to gain entry effectively, and safely? Is there likely to be weapons?

Whilst it is essential to minimise the injury potential for police and any occupant, powers and policy are also an extremely important component when planning a search warrant.
Is this action proportionate? Can police justify breaching an individual’s basic Human Right (European Convention of Human Rights Article 8 – The right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence), in the general interests of society. Will this action impact on the wider community? Do police have a legal power to enter and search the premises? Is it necessary for police to take this action?

Having considered the above, which is not an exhaustive list, and ensured every officer is happy with their assigned duty following the briefing, everyone ‘kits up’.
Officers gather near to the address and the command to move forward is given. Fortunately, due to the warm weather, a very swift entry was affected as the front door was open. Having seen the police enter, one of the occupants barricaded the living room door, and whilst frustrating our entry for a moment, ultimately the door was snapped in half.

As police officers spilled in to the living room a second male occupant is seen to reach for a large kitchen knife, but thankfully he was restrained in enough time that he was unable to use it. With the two males restrained with handcuffs, and adrenaline levels back to where they should be, the search began.

Ultimately the search revealed 262.7 grams of cocaine. With a street value of £50.00 per gram, that makes the haul worth £13,135. We also found large amounts of ‘cutting agents’ which is what drug dealers use to dilute the drugs, given the purity of the cocaine and the amount of cutting agent we recovered, the street value could have reached as much as £30,000. It is worth noting at this point that cocaine for sale in the UK is usually around 10% purity and the cocaine recovered was approximately 50% purity.

With the pair arrested our colleagues in CID then took on the long investigation which culminated in a Crown Court Trial last week. Both defendants were found to be guilty of ‘Possession With Intent To Supply’. Both received prison sentences, one for ten years, and the other for seven. These sentences were aggravated by the fact that both were violent individuals with previous convictions for importing and supplying class A drugs, in sentencing Judge Haworth said they had been caught 'red handed' by police.

This is a text book example of how your Neighbourhood Policing Team can work with you in bringing offenders to justice. We have to be able to justify any action that we take, and any information that we receive, no matter how small it may seem, could make all the difference.

Kindest Regards,

Pc 1808 Owen Phillips
Petersfield Community Beat Manager