Basildon Essex
Posts tagged Drugs
Bench and phonebox used for drug dealing
Oct 7th
The bench outside the parade of shops in the area known locally as Stacey’s Corner – at the junction of Gibcracks and Timberlog Lane – in Basildon has become a regular haunt by those involved in the sale and purchase of drugs.
Dealers are known to regularly meet punters at the bench to hand over illegal substances in exchange for cash. The phonebox is also used to arrange the seedy meetings.
But both could now be removed, after fed up residents said they have had enough.
Officials at Basildon Council have revealed they will consider moving both the bench and phone box in a bid to clean up the area.
via Stop crooks using phonebox for their drug dealing From Echo.
BBC News – Basildon Council takes away bench to deter drug dealers.
9 years in jail for locking wife and baby in loft
Jul 11th
A BODYBUILDER who locked his wife and one-year-old daughter in a loft has been jailed for nine years.
David Bell would keep wife Zara and daughter prisoners in their attic, while he worked out at the gym.
She barely had enough food to feed her daughter and the pair had to sit, soaked in their own urine, for hours on end over a terrifying three-week period.
The terrified mum only managed to escape from her life of terror when she smuggled an old mobile phone into the loft and called police while her husband was out.
Steroid-user Bell, 26, repeatedly beat his wife at their family home in Brackley Crescent, Pitsea.
Prosecuting, Andrew Jackson said: “He subjected his wife, on a daily basis, to what we say was savage and sustained beatings using his fists, feet and weapons.”
via Echo and another Echo article.
UPDATE 12 July 2011:
Daily Mail: After one beating, the court was told he forced Zara to stand in front of a mirror and sneered: ‘I don’t suppose you recognise yourself do you?
Mirror: David Bell, 26, forced his wife to have sex with another man then attacked her in a jealous rage after watching a video he made.
UPDATE 13 July 2011: Echo article with pictures of the victim and more in depth information.
Police uncover 77 cannabis plants in raid
Apr 18th
POLICE found 77 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of £20,000 after storming a house in Wickford Place, Pitsea.
Officers smashed the door of the house, at 9.50am on Thursday, 14 April, 2011 and found the plants in two of the three bedrooms. The plants were concealed behind tarpaulin in the rooms.
Pc Dan McHugh, of the Pitsea neighbourhood policing team, said the house had a complex set-up and officers suspected electricity was being stolen by bypassing the meter.
“We executed a warrant as a result of information received by the community.”
A 43-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis and taken into police custody.
Police dog sniffs out drugs under patio
Mar 29th
A MASSIVE haul of what is thought to be cocaine was found buried underneath a garden patio in a dawn drugs raid.
Three people were arrested on suspicion of dealing drugs following the find early yesterday morning.
A team of about ten plainclothes police officers raided the bungalow in Gay Bowers, Basildon, and immediately arrested the three people inside before a drugs sniffer dog – spaniel Jack – was let loose to search the property.
After sniffing about the garden, the highly trained dog began barking, indicating he had found something.
Handler PC Elaine Michaels lifted cement patio slabs to uncover the drugs, which were hidden inside a Hovis bread bag containing a large Nescafe coffee jar, bound with masking tape.
When officers opened the jar they found several white rocks, thought to be crack, as well as bags of a white powder, thought to be cocaine, and herbal cannabis.
The drugs were taken away by forensic officers and are being analysed.
I shot men by accident when I tried to kill fox
Jan 5th
A DISABLED farmer lost his firearms licence after two men suspected of burgling a cannabis factory on his land were allegedly shot.
Edward Tibbs, 62, from Elm Farm, London Road, Crays Hill, suffers from multiple sclerosis and neuralgia.
He believes he accidentally shot the intruders while firing at a fox from his mobility scooter.
It came after he was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with the men’s injuries in August.Mr Tibbs said at around 4am he was woken by noisy geese from a pen near his home and saw a fox nearby, he then went out on the scooter and fired about three shots at the animal, but must have missed.
The farmer says he had no idea two men were hit by pellets from his shotgun and he heard no shouts or screams.
He also insists he was oblivious to the fact cannabis was being grown in one of several units rented out on his farm.
Mr Tibbs explained: “Shooting is my life. I used to shoot every other day – rats, foxes, pigeons, vermin.”
Cannabis plants found after break-in
Oct 29th
FIREFIGHTERS uncovered a cannabis factory after being called there to put out a blaze.
They made the discovery in Polsteads, Vange, after they were called in by police who were investigating a suspected burglary.
They stopped a car, which had been reported as suspicious, but while talking to the driver they noticed smoke billowing out from the window of the house.
Firefighters attended and discovered the property, which is privately rented, was being used to farm the Class B drug cannabis.
It is thought an intruder may have disturbed some of the powerful electronic equipment, which is used to help grow the plant, and caused the fire.
The house had a sophisticated set-up which saw the upstairs filled with hydroponic lamps and watering systems.
The discovery comes just days after police unearthed another cannabis factory in nearby Hereford Walk, on Basildon’s Craylands estate.
Officers found more than 100 cannabis plants worth between £30,000 and £50,000.
Cucumber drug dealer jailed for eight years
Oct 26th
A BUSINESSMAN was jailed for eight years for being involved in a conspiracy to supply and distribute drugs with a street value of £11million.
Frederick Burnham, 52, of Bromfords Drive, Wickford was found guilty of supplying a controlled Class B drug after a trial.
Basildon Crown Court heard he was part of a gang that used his Commercial Convoys site in Baker Street, Orsett, to process 1.46 tonnes of cannabis on June 27 last year.
Burnham was being re-tried after the jury failed to reach a verdict in an earlier case in which seven other gang members were found guilty.
The gang were caught during an undercover operation by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency which found cannabis hidden in pallets of cucumbers in the back of a lorry being driven in from Spain.
Cannabis and class A drugs being sold in Basildon
Sep 16th
POLICE have been asked to step up patrols of two Basildon streets following residents’ complaints about drug dealing.
Lynda Gordon, leader of the opposition Labour group on Basildon Council, contacted police after hearing reports from worried residents about dealers openly selling drugs in Ballards Walk and Somercotes.
Officers announced yesterday they will be cracking down on the criminals, who are said to be selling cannabis and a variety of class A drugs during daylight hours and in the evenings.
Mrs Gordon said: “I was contacted by some really frightened residents. It’s pretty terrible, apparently the drug dealers are really blase and don’t mind who sees them.
“In Ballards Walk they drive up to the parade of shops in cars with their music blaring, before doing the deals. They’re selling openly in the street in Somercotes too.
Court orders closure of mums’ crack den homes
Jul 16th
TWO more people have been booted out of their homes after a judge decided they were crack dens.
Young mum Dionne Kalebaina, who is in her twenties and has a small child, was forced to leave 63 Powell Road, Laindon.
Meanwhile, mum Deborah Kelly, in her fifties, was also evicted from 129 Long Riding, Basildon.
Both mothers were forced to leave their rented homes after district judge Kevin Gray, sitting at Southend Magistrates’ Court, granted an application by police to close both properties using crack house closure orders.
64 years in jail for £9.5m drugs ring
Jun 21st
A GANG has been jailed for smuggling £9.5million worth of cannabis into the country to be sold on the streets of south Essex.
A dozen men were jailed for a total of 64 years and eight months for a conspiracy to import two huge shipments of the drug, hidden in boxes of cucumbers in the back of lorries from Spain.
They were all arrested during an undercover operation by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency last summer.
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