Cocaine Linked to Half of London Street Crime

48% of suspects arrested for street crime in London "had a significant cocaine dependency", top London cop Mike Fuller revealed this week. Mugging suspects caught in Hackney since the end of 2001 were swab tested when they were arrested, revealing the massive popularity of cocaine amongst street robbers.

"This has been quite a revelation for us," the deputy commissioner told the Guardian. "We didn't think it was as high as that."

He added that the crack cocaine use is rapidly encroaching into middle class areas and revealed that his cops will be increasingly targeting users of both crack and powder cocaine.

"Users don't appreciate the problems they create for the community," he said. "We can focus on suppliers but we also need to arrest users."
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• cocaine