A crackdown on drug dealing in Thanet has resulted a ban on visitors to four properties across the district.
Between July 17 and August 11, court orders were served by Kent Police on properties in Margate Road in Ramsgate, Dundonald Road in Broadstairs and two in Millmead Road in Margate.
The closure orders were applied for at magistrates’ courts in response to concerns reported to Kent Police that the flats and houses were being used by criminals, with some being a base by visiting county lines drug dealers.
Anti-social behaviour included threats and intimidation to residents, disturbances and noise, as well as people and vehicles arriving and waiting nearby at unusual times of the day.
The orders mean that visiting the four addresses has been restricted, with only certain people agreed by the courts allowed to access or continue living at the properties.
Anyone else found at the properties risks a fine or even a prison sentence. Notices have been placed on the doors, warning that it is an offence to enter.
Officers from the Thanet Community Safety Unit, supported by partner agencies, used reports of incidents received from the communities affected to put together evidence to bring to the courts and show there was a need for the orders.
District Commander for Thanet, Chief Inspector Ed Ruffle said: “We do not underestimate the impact that drug dealing and the associated disorder can have on the lives of those who live or work nearby.
“We will continue to apply for house closures if that is the appropriate course of action, whenever a property is linked to ongoing criminal activity in an area.
“If issues return at the end of the three-month closure period, then we will show no hesitation in applying again for the same property, as we have done for the flat in Dundonald Road.
“These closure orders, coupled with the proactive work of officers to identify and arrest drug dealers, should give the strong message that Kent Police does not tolerate this unlawful behaviour.
“Residents can play their part by reporting any suspected drug-related crime in their community to Kent Police, either by calling 101 (or 999 if a crime is in progress), or via our website: https://www.kent.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/”
These addresses should not be allowed to ply their dealing for as long as they do before anything is done about it.
Also Little noisy motorbikes doing “delivery or collections” need clamping down on.
Bill,
I agree about the delivery scooters, see them all the time near the Ramsgate viaduct area.
This action is a good start but needs to be rigorously followed up and expanded. These 4 properties will only be the tip of the iceberg in Thanet.
Think the house is all boarded up now
This is great news, but a shame that Kent Police Farce, show no interest in other drug dealing properties; Basement flat, 40, Addington Street, Margate.
I think that unless you can provide evidence then you should have your potentially libellous comment removed.
There is enough photo evidence, of carrier bags full of cannabis, so mind your own business.
Ignorant response to I am sure a well intentioned piece of advice!!
Ignorant and mispelt response from yourself.
If you have nothing good to say, why bother poking your nose in to something you know nothing about.
Or the raid on Harold road where it was raided with weed being there
They aught to claimed down on activity in Grafton Road Broadstairs!!!!!
They aught to clamp down on activity in Grafton Road Broadstairs!!!
Thanet Community Safety Unit will you be doing the same in Addington Street in Ramsgate? All the evidence provided for court orders on the properties mentioned in this article has also been provided for your Addington Street property over a number of years.
As a nation we’ve painted ourselves into a corner,
We don’t want to lock up drug dealers and instead say they’re victims of the “kingpins”
We say that everybody has to live somewhere and where people don’t/are’nt able to afford this we pay for it.
We don’t have the resources to monitor and follow the perpetrators 24/7 (and if we did the libertarians would soon pipe up)
The vast majority don’t live close to such activities and so don’t really care.
The days in the past of the local “right minded” community leaders going round and having a word are long gone.
So as a result the drug dealers have pretty much the ability to do as they wish. There’s no political will to change anything and not enough money to put an end to it. Only way forward would be for drugs to be a state run enterprise run on a non profit basis where you undercut the criminals, but then you’d have lots of the criminally minded needing to find a new income.
Yes, and you would have an opportunity to ween the users off the crap they are putting into their bodies which is killing them. Maybe the government prefer to let them die in their own stupor, like they are with this covid-19 mess. The less people claiming benefits and pensions the better as far as they are concerned. Tories are the uncaring party with no empathy to say the least.