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Stranraer Winning War on Drugs

STRANRAER is winning the war on drugs - that's the view of the police force's officer in chief for Galloway Division.

In a frank interview with the Free Press this week, Super-intendent Mike McCormick claims the current picture is that major dealers are giving the town a bodyswerve.

He highlights the success of recent operations, which led to jail terms in excess of 50 years being handed down to more than 20 local peddlers, as the reason for the drop in dealing offences in Stranraer.

And he reveals that he wants to avoid another operation on the scale of Emperor - instead concentrating on stifling any market that does remain locally.

The drug-related death of a local teenager earlier this year proves that the problem hasn't just ceased to exist. And the latest figures show that whilst there has been a drop this year in supply offences in Stranraer and district the number of possession offences has risen sharply.

For the whole of last year there were 194 supply offences in comparison to 105 for this year to date. But possession offences have risen from 119 last year to 201 already this year. The Superintendent said:

"Drugs will always be an issue in Stranraer but, and I don't want to sound naive here, my understanding is that there¹s a very limited supply of drugs in the town at the moment because dealers are scared to come here and get caught.

"The picture from the intelligence we get is that the availability of drugs in Stranraer is stifled at the moment."