DRUG dealers are using violence and intimidation to force suppliers to sell heroin and crack cocaine across Barrow and South Cumbria, police have revealed. 

Following on from Operation Quadrant, a two-week crackdown on those who target the most vulnerable in society, Detective Chief Inspector Nick Coughlan has spoken about the organised criminal gangs who are attempting to flood Barrow and South Cumbria with drugs. 

During the operation, drugs with a street value of £72,000 were seized following the execution of 12 search warrants and a number of stop searches. 

It is often the drug users on the street, and concerned residents, who tip-off police about dealers in Barrow, with most of the intelligence-gathering work being highly secretive, as DCI Coughlan explained. 


DCI Nick Coughlan "People in Barrow know who is bringing the gear in and we do rely to a great degree on information provided by members of the public," the officer said. 

"It's being brought in by organised criminal gangs predominantly from Liverpool but also from Manchester; we're talking about crack cocaine, heroin and cocaine."

Barrow is understood to be seen as a key target for dealers because some of the town's deprived areas and drug use. Gangs distribute the drugs to Barrow-based dealers - usually users themselves, who are paid either in cash or more often, with drugs.

Although some may see drug supply as something of a victimless crime, DCI Coughlan, who has been in the force for 26 years, said the wider influence on society can be devastating and criminal gangs are known to carry firearms and other potentially lethal weapons. However, he said there is no evidence that guns had been brought to Barrow. 

"Drug users need money so they steal from shops, they break into people's houses and they steal from cars," he said. 

"Within large urban cities there are gangs who are involved in the supply of drugs and individual groups have a favoured location. 

"There is a level of violence and intimidation when people work up drug debts. There's also a degree of violence when criminal groups overlap into each other's territory and that's when things can get very serious."