Three in court after biggest Wolverhampton drugs blitz
Three dealers who were caught as part of the biggest blitz on drugs and gangs in a city's history have appeared in court.
Stephen Brown, Beresford Smith and Dane Stephens were arrested after police carried out raids across Wolverhampton in a blitz on criminal activity known as Operation No Deal.
All three have appeared at Birmingham Crown Court where they pleaded guilty to charges of being concerned with the supply of heroin and crack cocaine between January and October last year.
Brown, aged 36, Smith aged 62, both of no fixed address and 42-year-old Stephens from Alexandra Road, Palfrey, Walsall, will be sentenced later this year.
More than 20 people have so far been put behind bars following the crackdown which was launched by police.
Officers in the city targeted key drug dealers in a series of dawn raids and pointed users in the direction of drug treatment schemes. Undercover police posed as buyers on the streets of Heath Town and Low Hill to buy dozens of wraps of heroin and crack cocaine during covert operations.
Around 280 officers were involved in simultaneous swoops on addresses aimed at breaking up criminal organisations. Their aim was to rid the city and surrounding areas of street-level drug dealing.
They began Operation No Deal in Wolverhampton 18 months ago and launched several dawn raids late last summer. So far, 23 men, one woman and one youth have been put through the court system and sentenced.
The longest prison term was given to Lance Wafer, aged 27, of Luce Road in Low Hill, Wolverhampton, who was jailed for five years. Fellow Low Hill men Gary Newton, 38, of Fourth Avenue and Patrick McNeil, 22 ,of First Avenue, were given four years.
Chester Street, Great Hampton Street and Waterloo Road are some of the streets in the city where raids were carried out.
