At least 100 crack and heroin dealers are operating in Southend.
But police are leading the way in getting the dealers off the streets, with more arrests and drugs seized in the borough than anywhere else in Essex.
More than 1,200 of the 176,000 people in the borough are estimated to be addicts, with several people dieing from overdoses every year.
Two months into the force-wide Operation Orlando, head of intelligence Det Insp Joe Roche said he was delighted with the work being done.
He said: "Southend has had a drug problem for years.
"In the 70s, heroin wasn't well known outside of the big cities but we had it in Southend.
"The saying used to be that Southend sneezes and the rest of the county catches something, because the problems start here and works its way to the rest of the county.
He said: "Drugs have been a problem for years but we have prioritised fighting other crime like burglaries.
"Now, we are starting to look at it. It is already a well-established problem so we have a lot of work on our hands, but I cannot praise the officers enough for their enthusiasm in tackling this."
Published Friday, June 6, 2003
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