Armed police in dramatic drugs swoop (From Daily Echo)

Armed police in dramatic drugs swoop

2:07pm Thursday 9th July 2009 in

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ARMED police staged a dramatic swoop on suspected drug dealers during a raid on a quiet Southampton cul-de-sac.

Stunned onlookers watched in disbelief as four people were handcuffed by plain-clothed officers brandishing machine guns.

Five people were last night still being held in custody following the raid yesterday, and a subsequent arrest in Southampton.

A spokesman said they had all been detained as part of an investigation led by Hampshire’s Serious and Organised Crime team into “the wholesale distribution of class A drugs”.

Police seized two vehicles and a “substantial quantity” of what are believed to be illegal drugs, which are being analysed.

Specialist officers swooped as the vehicles – a taxi and a small van – were about to leave Captains Place, in the Chapel area of the city centre, at 11am.

“We just saw two cars come out from the arches, and then these cars shot in and blocked them off,” said Paul Shinar, 52, owner of The Court Jester pub nearby.

“They all came in at the same time – it was obviously a co-ordinated raid.

“The police just came flooding out of the cars, then there was a guy lying on the ground, and there were guns everywhere.”

Aaron Rooke, 29, works at Central Welding. He said: “A taxi pulled up and then went round the corner, and the next thing I knew was when I heard them shouting ‘armed police’.

“I saw that they had someone on the floor and were standing over them with machine guns – it’s not something you see every day.”

Officers from Hampshire Police’s force support detained four people – three men and a woman – who were left handcuffed and sitting on the ground while searches of the area and vehicles were carried out.

One by one, the four arrested individuals were driven off in police vans for questioning.

Police then took a white Vauxhall Astra estate taxi and a white small Vauxhall van, away on recovery trucks.