Arrests made during dawn drug raids

Officers break down a door during this morning's drug raids.

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The police have their hands full dealing with the drugs trade, but there is more to it than smashing down doors and handcuffing dealers. Rochdale Online News Reporter Kirsty Rigg went along to a dramatic early morning raid to find out more.

It’s 5.30am on a quiet central-south street in Rochdale, everyone is sleeping and completely oblivious to what is about to happen. Back at Rochdale Police Station, a team of 160 police officers are being briefed on what will be one of the largest drugs raids this year for heroin and crack cocaine.

The intelligence team has worked tooth and nail for months, gathering evidence, dealing with the background complexities of crime solving, and finally, their hard work is about to pay off as 15 more addresses around the town are about to be stormed and raided.

Today (Thursday 14 May), is the last day in a two day stretch, in which 30 separate search warrants were exercised. Out of this, 21 arrests were made – an impressive success rate for the intelligence crew.

Screams were heard from an upstairs bedroom as officers burst into the first house, in the Deeplish area.

“Police! Police!” was shouted as approximately 10 officers, including the Tactical Aid Unit, made their way inside.

On hand were community officers, ready to take care of women and children who may be present, and who may go into shock.

Community Race Relations Officer Jan Hargreaves said: “Women and children can often be on the premises and may not have a clue what is going on.

“Often we will take them out of the room if arrests are being made, and we’ll spend time explaining to them what’s going on. It is important to do this, it can be very frightening.”

The raids were part of Operation Perryville aimed at people distributing heroin and crack cocaine in the Milkstone, Deeplish, and central-south area.

Chief Superintendent John O’Hare said: “We take drugs very seriously and we don’t apologise for knocking down doors.

“At the end of the day we are protecting the community and protecting the people, and we want them to feel safe where they live. If we can take dangerous people off the streets then we are doing something right.

“We have done 30 warrants in two days, every search warrant must be granted by the magistrates court, based on evidence we have gathered from our intelligence team.

“We ended up with a good result which we are happy with.”

He added: “People get into drugs when they don’t think they stand a chance in the every day, competitive, working world.

“There is money in drugs and they see it as a plausible alternative, but once they scratch beneath the surface they realise its not the luxurious fantasy world it's made out to be.

“We have had 21 people in the back of police vans in the past few days, there’s nothing luxurious about that.”

This morning, nine men and one woman were arrested on suspicion of drugs offences.

Seven men have been charged following yesterday's raids.

Mohammed Akbar Ali (born 06/05/1990) of Foxholes road, Rochdale, was charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Imran Vagheir (born 14/09/1986) of Dunkirk Rise, Rochdale, was charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Ruemaan Vagheir (born 09/09/1988) of Canon Street, Rochdale, was charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs and money laundering.

Peter Ryan (born 09/06/1956) of Finsbury Street, Rochdale, was charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Najam Satti (born 11/09/1983) of Elliott Street, Rochdale, was charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Zahid Anwar (born 05/04/1986) of Hilltop Drive, Rochdale, was charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

David Smith (born 06/01/1975) of Finsbury Street, Rochdale, was charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

All seven men are due to appear at Rochdale Magistrates' Court this morning.

A further seven people aged 35, 29, 18, 21, 18, 45 and 19 arrested on suspicion of drugs offences on Wednesday 13 May were bailed pending further enquiries.

During the first day of raids, officers recovered £30,000 cash, 20 bags of crack cocaine and heroin and seized two cars.