Crime, drugs and alcohol abuse cost taxpayers in just three regions £1.5billion a year, according to official reports.
Councils in Birmingham, Luton and Leicestershire have calculated the price of social breakdown in terms of police and court time, health services, welfare benefits and support for families. In one area, the cost of binge-drinking on hospitals and the criminal justice system was put at £713million a year, while addicts used up another £500m in public sector resources.
The figures have been uncovered by the Conservatives in pilot projects commissioned by the Government but not published centrally.
Caroline Spelman, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said: “It is no surprise that Labour ministers have tried to bury this bad news. “Across the country, local taxpayers are footing the bill for Labour’s broken society. The costs of social breakdown, alcohol abuse, poor schooling and drug addiction are just not confined to deprived areas – we all pay for it in our council tax bills and pay packets.
“There is no excuse for the secrecy of Labour ministers – they must come clean and publish all these reports in full.”
The 13 pilot studies were commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government a year ago in a £5m project known as Total Place. The idea was that public sector organisations in any given area could save money and improve services by improving co-operation and reducing duplication.
Earlier this month Liam Byrne, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told MPs that it was up to local authorities whether they wanted to publish their reports or not, and he declined to put copies of each study in the Commons library. But the Tories have found the results of three Total Place studies, covering Birmingham; Luton and Central Bedfordshire; and Leicestershire.
The Birmingham report found that gang-related murders and attempted murders are costing the city’s taxpayers at least £1.5m a year in police, court and prison costs. It puts the cost of the activities of “10 major dynastic gang families” at £187.5m over the past 40 years. Birmingham’s two main gangs, the Johnson Crew and the Burger Bar Boys, are each said to include three generations of five families. Their rivalry led to the fatal shooting of two teenage girls, Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis, at a New Year party in 2003.
In Luton and Central Bedfordshire, a hard core of 250 criminals is blamed for a quarter of all offences, costing taxpayers up to £112m a year.
The Birmingham report puts the cost of alcohol misuse - including public disorder, workplace sickness and health services – at £713m a year. Drug misuse is said to cost £500m in terms of treatment, mental health care, benefits payments and police time.
Leicestershire estimated that drinking costs the NHS, police, workplaces and social services £120m a year.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk 24th March 2010
Showing posts with label crime gangs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crime gangs. Show all posts
Call to halt trade in cocaine 'cutting' agent
THE spiralling use of a dental anaesthetic by criminals to bulk-out cocaine deals has prompted talks between police and the government over a clampdown on its trade, The Scotsman has learned.
Several meetings have taken place between senior officers and civil servants on the supply of lidocaine, which generates tens of millions of pounds for crime gangs.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is understood to have lobbied the Westminster government to introduce legislation restricting the ability of drug dealers and middlemen to buy large amounts of Lidocaine from overseas.
Senior detectives from Scotland have also held talks with counterparts south of the Border and government officials over similar moves. Sources have told The Scotsman they are pushing ministers to introduce a licensing scheme that would force individuals importing large quantities of potential cutting agents to prove they are for legitimate use.
Also known as Lignocaine, the anaesthetic is used in liquid form by dentists and other medical practitioners. Government restrictions ensure that most lidocaine supplied within the UK ends up in legitimate hands. But it can also be freely purchased in powder form from dealers overseas, leading to the emergence of a black market.
Lidocaine - along with other commonly-used cocaine cutting agents such as benzocaine and phenacetin - are a huge money-spinner for the dealers.
Cocaine is between 80 and 90 per cent pure when it arrives in the UK, where a kilo will cost around £35,000. Sold on the street, a kilo is nominally worth about £50,000. Diluting it twice over with a cutting agent turns a £15,000 profit into a £100,000-plus reward for dealers.
A spokeswoman for SOCA said: "The use of cutting agents is at high, if not record, levels. They are often carcinogenic and, clearly, people are not getting what they've paid for. "You can import Lidocaine but it is illegal to import large quantities with the purpose of mixing it with cocaine."
A senior Scottish police source added: "The availability of these agents is a major concern. Although some are harmless in themselves they are generating massive amounts of money for organised drug-dealers."
Steven Ward, crime co-ordinator at the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said police were "taking all steps possible to disrupt the ability of organised-crime groups to traffic cocaine". As The Scotsman revealed yesterday, police are urging so-called recreational users to consider the social and human cost of producing and supplying cocaine - a change in tactics that reflects the growth in demand for the drug in recent years.
Tom Wood, chairman of the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams, gave cautious support to the proposed restrictions. "This makes a lot of sense. But it has to be thought through - if you reduce the availability of benign substances, dealers may move to less inert cutting agents."
How added chemicals boost dealers' profits
LIDOCAINE, benzocaine, phenacetin and manitol have been identified as commonly used agents for cutting cocaine in the UK.
Phenacetin is principally used as an analgesic. Lidocaine and benzocaine are used as local anaesthetics. Manitol is used in the food industry as a sweetener. Phenacetin is believed to be carcinogenic and toxic to the kidneys, while the other three are harmless.
The cutting agents can be obtained easily and cheaply from overseas. Licences are only required if the chemicals are to be altered or re-packaged before selling on. Personal imports and use of these agents have been rising in the last 18-24 months.
Phenacetin is one of the most desired cutting agents because of its similarity in appearance to cocaine. Cocaine cut with phenacetin can thus be sold to buyers further down the supply chain as being of high purity.
Cocaine sold at street level has decreased in purity from 30-40 per cent to 20-30 per cent in the last two years, indicating a growth in the use of cutting agents after import into the UK.
Source: The Scotsman 15th May 2007
Several meetings have taken place between senior officers and civil servants on the supply of lidocaine, which generates tens of millions of pounds for crime gangs.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is understood to have lobbied the Westminster government to introduce legislation restricting the ability of drug dealers and middlemen to buy large amounts of Lidocaine from overseas.
Senior detectives from Scotland have also held talks with counterparts south of the Border and government officials over similar moves. Sources have told The Scotsman they are pushing ministers to introduce a licensing scheme that would force individuals importing large quantities of potential cutting agents to prove they are for legitimate use.
Also known as Lignocaine, the anaesthetic is used in liquid form by dentists and other medical practitioners. Government restrictions ensure that most lidocaine supplied within the UK ends up in legitimate hands. But it can also be freely purchased in powder form from dealers overseas, leading to the emergence of a black market.
Lidocaine - along with other commonly-used cocaine cutting agents such as benzocaine and phenacetin - are a huge money-spinner for the dealers.
Cocaine is between 80 and 90 per cent pure when it arrives in the UK, where a kilo will cost around £35,000. Sold on the street, a kilo is nominally worth about £50,000. Diluting it twice over with a cutting agent turns a £15,000 profit into a £100,000-plus reward for dealers.
A spokeswoman for SOCA said: "The use of cutting agents is at high, if not record, levels. They are often carcinogenic and, clearly, people are not getting what they've paid for. "You can import Lidocaine but it is illegal to import large quantities with the purpose of mixing it with cocaine."
A senior Scottish police source added: "The availability of these agents is a major concern. Although some are harmless in themselves they are generating massive amounts of money for organised drug-dealers."
Steven Ward, crime co-ordinator at the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said police were "taking all steps possible to disrupt the ability of organised-crime groups to traffic cocaine". As The Scotsman revealed yesterday, police are urging so-called recreational users to consider the social and human cost of producing and supplying cocaine - a change in tactics that reflects the growth in demand for the drug in recent years.
Tom Wood, chairman of the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams, gave cautious support to the proposed restrictions. "This makes a lot of sense. But it has to be thought through - if you reduce the availability of benign substances, dealers may move to less inert cutting agents."
How added chemicals boost dealers' profits
LIDOCAINE, benzocaine, phenacetin and manitol have been identified as commonly used agents for cutting cocaine in the UK.
Phenacetin is principally used as an analgesic. Lidocaine and benzocaine are used as local anaesthetics. Manitol is used in the food industry as a sweetener. Phenacetin is believed to be carcinogenic and toxic to the kidneys, while the other three are harmless.
The cutting agents can be obtained easily and cheaply from overseas. Licences are only required if the chemicals are to be altered or re-packaged before selling on. Personal imports and use of these agents have been rising in the last 18-24 months.
Phenacetin is one of the most desired cutting agents because of its similarity in appearance to cocaine. Cocaine cut with phenacetin can thus be sold to buyers further down the supply chain as being of high purity.
Cocaine sold at street level has decreased in purity from 30-40 per cent to 20-30 per cent in the last two years, indicating a growth in the use of cutting agents after import into the UK.
Source: The Scotsman 15th May 2007
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