14 arrested as heroin network smashed
The suspects, 12 men and two women, were arrested during a series of raids in Ballymena, Co Antrim.
Detectives believe the drugs are being smuggled in from Dublin and from British cities.
The move against alleged street dealers, codenamed Operation Sturge, was the biggest anti-drug offensive in the North for years.
More than 120 officers were involved in early morning swoops on at least 17 locations, which had been planned since January.
Quantities of Class A and C drugs, along with cash, were also seized.
Ten houses were initially searched in Ballymena, an area ravaged by drugs.
Properties in Sion Mills, Co Tyrone, and Kilrea, Co Derry, were also targeted.
But British Criminal Investigation Department and Drugs Squad officers’ focus was firmly on Ballymena, where up to 600 heroin addicts live.
Three people in the town have died from overdoses in the last year alone, the Police Service of Northern Ireland revealed.
In a second phase, another five addresses were later raided in a bid to disrupt the distribution of heroin in the town.
Detective Inspector Mark Dennison, who headed the operation, said: “The supply market within Ballymena will dry up because of what’s happened today.
“This will have a significant impact.”
Surveillance was used to gather intelligence before specialist units went in.
Battering rams were used to break down doors on the suspects’ homes.
At one location on Waveney Road, Ballymena, officers burst into all three floors in a block of flats before finding their target. A 29-year-old man was arrested.
Officers searched his ground floor apartment, informing him he was being held under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Mr Dennison said evidence was gathered between January and March.
The scale of the swoops were the biggest since Operation Galiot in 2002, which led to 14 heroin dealers being charged after searches in Ballymena and in south Belfast.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
