Police triple class A drug haul in less than a year

CLASS A drug seizures across Avon and Somerset have more than tripled in the past nine months as officers tighten their grip on the dealers.
From April 2007 to the end of December 2007 Avon and Somerset Police seized class A drugs with a street value of £2.4 million.
This figure compares with £790,000 worth of drugs seized from April 2006 to March 2007.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Williams, head of the force's serious crime group, said: "These figures show the success we are having in dismantling, disrupting and destroying those organised crime groups who seek to profit from drug dealing in our area.
"Working with partner agencies and with the support of local communities we have had some excellent arrests and seizures in the past year.
"One way to gauge the impact we are having on dealers is the purity of the drugs seized.
"As dealers get squeezed by the police the purity drops as drugs get harder to get hold of.
"The average purity of cocaine would be expected to be around 40 per cent.
"That has dropped to around 20 per cent and in one recent seizure the cocaine was six per cent pure.
"That brings with it new risks for the user as it will be mixed with all sorts of cutting agents that no-one will know about.
"The greatest increase in seizures during the last year has been in heroin and cocaine."
Heroin seizures to date equate to £1.3 million in comparison to £85,000 last year, and cocaine seizures increased to £1 million compared to £272,000 for the same period last year.