200 Drug Busts in Burglary Crackdown

17 April 2012, 05:00

After the number of burglaries went up by a third in the last year in Oxford, police have set up a special team to tackle the problem.

As well as trying to track known offenders they are targeting drug dealers after finding that almost all the people they arrest for burglary test positive for drugs.

4 weeks into a 6 month operation the team has made 237 busts of heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis worth thousands of pounds.

It comes as the latest crime stats for the Thames Valley show drug trafficking has gone up by 15 percent in the last year.

Superintendent Chris Sharp, Local Area Commamnder for Oxford, says a lot of break-ins are fuelled by people needing to get cash for a quick fix,

"Instead of offenders searching a whole house they've been entering single rooms and stealing laptops, cash or mobile phone that are on display, sometimes that's through insecure premesis or sometimes that's through faulty doors."