David Jeremiah: Tackle the problem

David Jeremiah of the Gwent Drug and Alcohol Team said some areas of the problem were being tackled - but not all.

"We are trying to do our best to tackle the problem," he said.

"Something has to be done before it spirals out of control"

The police statistics were released following the conviction of seven people involved in a multi-million pound drugs network.

Ringleader Hassan Mohammed, from Newport, received a 10-year sentence on Thursday, following Operation Tacit, which focused on the supply of Class A drugs.

Those convicted at Cardiff Crown Court were handed a total of 38 years in prison after being charged with conspiracy to supply heroin.

The convictions came after the biggest operation ever mounted by Gwent Police.

Operation Tacit, headed by Detective Inspector Steve Webber, was set up in March 2000 and centred on the activities of a Somalian crime group in the Newport area.

Hassan Mohammed was identified last year, and a number of his couriers and suppliers were arrested.

"Operation Tacit used both conventional policing methods and covert equipment," said Mr Webber.

Spreading problem

"It has been a long, hard enquiry but the pleas of guilty by all the defendants and the sentences imposed on them reflects the way Gwent Police carried out this enquiry." 11

Before 1995, the use of heroin in Gwent was generally limited to the Newport and Abertillery areas but, by 1999, had spread to all of Gwent.

Between 1999 and mid 2001 there was one heroin-related death every fortnight in Gwent.

Mr Jermiah said there were only two beds in the Gwent area to treat drug addicts trying to come off the drugs.

"For victms trying to come off the drug there is a waiting list of nine months," he said.

Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom

The drug gang convictions follow calls for a Royal Commission into the possibility of legalising all drugs from North Wales Police Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom.

Mr Brunstrom told his police authority that the war against drugs was being lost and that perhaps the only way to beat the scourge was to legalise them.

In a controversial report he compared the UK policy on banning the sale and possession of illegal drugs to that of America's alcohol prohibition in the 1920s and called for a Royal Commission to be set up to study the issue.

However, a Home Office spokeswoman said that, although no official reply to the request for a Royal Commission, the message would be that the government has no plans to set one up.