POLICE IN Fife staged a series of early-morning raids yesterday in the biggest anti-drugs operation the region has ever seen.

A total of 135 officers acted at 12 addresses across Fife as part of Operation Impact, an intelligence-led initiative aimed at disrupting the trade at street level.

Dealers in central Fife bore the brunt as most properties raided were in Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes, although the operation also took in homes in Dunfermline and Ballingry.

A total of 16 people were taken into custody, with around £4500 worth of drugs and around £1000 in cash also seized.

Detective Inspector Neil Kerr, drug squad head, hailed said more arrests were anticipated.

He said, “We made a pledge at the beginning of the year to target the kingdom’s drug dealers this year and we have done everything we can to honour that promise.

“We are delighted with the success of this major operation and want to warn the dealers that it will not be the last.”

Their aim was not necessarily to target large consignments of drugs, but to target instead low-level dealers—often the scourge of communities.

Much of the campaign focused on the sale of what are commonly known as “tenner bags” of heroin— 0.1 grams of the drug, for injecting or smoking.

Wave after wave of officers in riot gear left Glenrothes headquarters before dawn, with support units using their 18kg enforcers to batter down the first door in Winifred Crescent, Kirkcaldy, at 6.15am—around the same time as another address was subjected to a similar raid in the town.

From there, the forces travelled to a block of flats in the Tanshall area of Glenrothes, where two addresses were raided, with two more addresses in the Macedonia area next up before 7.30am.

The exercise in central Fife was effectively over a short time later when they raided a flat in the Warout area of Glenrothes, managing to stop the man inside from climbing out of a window.

In all, four addresses in Kirkcaldy, five in Glenrothes, two in Dunfermline and one in Ballingry were raided in the operation, planned since October.

Detective Superintendent Ian Hutton, head of crime management, said the wake-up calls will encourage more people to speak out against dealers in their areas.

“Today was not a quantity-based operation but we’re focusing on the lower end of the chain—the people who are directly feeding the habit of users,” he said.

“This is designed to target the people responsible for the dealing.

“If we find drugs, that’s a bonus but this is mainly about causing maximum disruption to the chain.

“We will be liaising with our partners in the council’s housing service to make full use of anti-social behaviour legislation, particularly closure orders.

“This is intended to make it even more difficult for those we are targeting to return to business as usual.

“It also demonstrates to those people who have telephoned us that we’re going to take action—we’re hoping that there is very much a snowball effect to this.

“Our targets may change but our tactics certainly will not.”

Drug deaths in Fife rose from 13 in 2005 to 21 last year, and 15 have been confirmed as directly related to drug use, with the rest awaiting toxicology reports.

Five suspected drug deaths have been reported in the region this year.

The force is offering advice to addicts who may have lost their main source of supply yesterday.

Drug liaison officer PC Kenny Cameron said, “Together with our partners in NHS Fife and the Drugs and Alcohol Action Team we will be making sure information on the dangers of sourcing drugs from an unknown supplier is distributed.

“Drug agencies and addiction services are also aware of the potential increase in demand.”

Eight men and eight women are expected to appear at a special court sitting in Kirkcaldy today, facing charges of supplying or being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.

The latest seizures take the total amount of drugs netted by the force in 2006/7 to almost £2million, including more than £1million of class A substances.