Fife police chief Derek McEwan admits drugs are 'plentiful'

That's according to Chief Superintendent Derek McEwan who admitted there was still a "plentiful" supply of illegal substances being sold on the streets.

He said there are occasions when they don't have the officers available to kick in doors and why some searches are for amounts so small they often come up empty handed.

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Mr McEwan told councillors: "It does become problematic at times to target drug dealers.

"We have to do it at a time where the intelligence suggests they're going to have drugs in their house or they are dealing.

The divisional commander for Fife, Chief Superintendent Derek McEwan. (Image: Newsquest)

"Mixed in with that we have to assess who is going to do the turn, whoever is kicking in the door has to be properly trained, not riot police but people with the proper attire, and sometimes they're unavailable.

"Sometimes there are particular animals in the house and that means police officers can't go in there without additional support.

"Sometimes if there's a mention of firearms associated with that address there has to be a firearms search.

"So sometimes we are not actually able to execute warrants at a time when we believe would be the most productive time to do it, sometimes we have to execute warrants when the resources are there, so that impacts as well."

Mr McEwan was discussing crime figures, for April to September last year, at the people and communities scrutiny committee.

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In that time they seized drugs worth an estimated £5.7 million, that included 3,430 cannabis plants worth around £2.7m, approximately £530,000 of cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine, and 328kg of cannabis worth £3.3m.

Councillors pointed out that the number of people detected for supplying, producing and selling drugs had dropped from 120 to 99, compared to the same period in 2022.

In response to a question Fife's divisional commander replied: "It's certainly not the case there are less drugs going around. They are still, unfortunately, plentiful out there.

"In the report you can see some high level drug seizures that we've had.

"Probably your residents won't really appreciate that as they will still see the people going to the door to buy £10 of heroin and it's the low level dealers that are more and more problematic for us to target simply because of the resources required.

"If you take a particular crime, such as dealing heroin, the amounts we're looking for in those house searches are so small.

"Because of the nature of the drug, it's in powder form, it can often be we don't find them in those searches because there are ways in which they're able to conceal smaller amounts of drugs.

"Whereas it's difficult to conceal 328kg of cannabis when you stop a vehicle."

He said that as well as drugs, the number of deaths related to illegal substances was also prevalent.

Mr McEwan said: "Individuals that are in that 40-plus age group are, sadly, routinely dying and it's probably because their bodies have been taking drugs since their late teens and are literally just giving up on them.

"We've got a long way to go before there's a lack of drugs on the streets."