The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
DRUGS SEIZED
Class A drugs with a street value of hundreds of thousands of pounds were recovered by police in Peterborough’s Central Ward.
Four men were all arrested in Peterborough on October 12 after police conducted preplanned warrants in the city.
A significant amount of class A drugs worth about £250,000 were recovered following the warrants.
Four city men have been charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs and are currently in custody. Sarbaz Khalil, 30, of Crown Street, Rebwar Omar, 35, of Pendleton, Walid Aziz, 31, of Pendleton, Jaza Ali, 33, of Acer Road, are due to enter a plea at Peterborough Crown Court on January 8.
Action was taken after concerns were raised by users of the Faizan-E-Madinah mosque in Gladstone Street in meetings with the police.
Peterborough’s police chief Superintendent Melanie Dales has hailed the “robust” action taken by her force in tackling the drugs problem.
She said: “I’m really pleased by this because I would not want to live in an area with problems like that so why would anybody else?”
Supt Dales added: “The community in Central Ward brought this to our attention and they have been brilliant in supporting us and providing us with information.”
Mosque chairman Abdul Choudhuri stressed that drugs is an issue for the entire city, and not just Central Ward, but he praised the police for acting on the concerns which were passed on.
He said: “We had several complaints from members of the community. They had concerns about drugs issues in the area. We contacted the police, had a meeting with them and expressed our deep concerns.
“The drugs issue has been here for a long, long time, it’s not just come up recently. We wanted the authorities to take action and it seems they have done.”
Cllr Mohammed Nadeem, who represents Central Ward, said drugs followed anti-social behaviour and littering as the biggest problem in the area.
He added: “It’s a serious problem across the city and a lot of people are worried about it.”