Plague of parasites

Judge Anthony Scott-Gall said the city was populated with parasite suppliers who preyed on others.

And he said it was a public disgrace that ordinary people were forced to live alongside them.

His remarks came as he jailed Ian Edwards for four years for supplying heroin to undercover police officers.

Edwards, 22, was the leader of a gang of dealers who called themselves The Scousers.

Jonathan Ingram, prosecuting, said the gang were watched as they sold heroin to addicts in Brighton city centre in February and March.

Edwards, of Grand Parade, Brighton, and other members of his gang were later arrested as part of Operation New York.

The undercover initiative is designed to sweep those who deal in hard drugs off the city's streets.

Edwards admitted six charges of supplying heroin when he appeared for sentence at Hove Crown Court yesterday.

Barbara Downes, defending, said Edwards had been addicted to Class A drugs for some time.

She said he agreed to sell drugs for other suppliers to pay off his debts.

She added that Edwards had been paid in heroin and as a result had not profited from supplying.

Judge Scott-Gall told him: "Those who become addicted to Class A drugs lead a degrading and miserable life.

"The parasites who live off such people destroy those on whom they prey and their families for their own selfish profit.

"Unfortunately, Brighton is populated by such parasites who supply drugs.

"It is a public disgrace that decent, law-abiding people in Brighton and other parts of Sussex have to live shoulder-to-shoulder with such people.

"This court has a duty to send a clear signal to people who deal in Class A drugs that they face long prison sentences when they are caught."

The judge's comments came in the wake of Brighton being labelled the drugs death capital of Britain for the last three years.

Operation New York was launched to force the dealers and suppliers off the streets. The Argus revealed in February that the crackdown had resulted in more than 100 arrests and a big drop in drug-related crime.

Police and their partners in the initiative received a Home Office award in March for their work.

It recognises the effect the police and the city's drug and alcohol action team and crime reduction initiatives have had.

Detective Chief Inspector Graham Bartlett, head of CID, said then: "The vast majority of acquisitive crime such as burglary, theft and robbery was to enable drug users to fund their addiction."

A report by the International Centre for Drug Policy published in October last year showed that 46 people died as a result of drugs in Brighton and Hove in 2004.

This gave the city a death rate of 21.8 per 100,000 per cent of the population over 16 years old, ranking it above London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham. In 2003 the number of people who died was 51, giving the city a death rate of 25.3.

Work that has been done includes courses at Lewes Prison, substance misuse nurses in accident and emergency departments and specialists working closely with GPs and ambulance crews.

More than 204 people, including a number of major players within Brighton and Hove's drugs trade have been arrested to date under Operation New York.

Police said burglary rates have dropped 48 per cent since the start of the operation, vehicle crime had been reduced by 45 per cent, robbery had dropped 26 per cent and there had been a 70 per cent reduction in drugs-related calls from members of the public.

Operation New York has impressed the Government enough for it to provide extended funding up to March 2007.

DCI Bartlett said: "Drug users should be aware that the drugs they are buying are now worse quality because dealers are having to cut them in with other things."