Thursday, 22. November 2007
Topic: DRUGS - on November 22, 2007 at 12:40:00 PM CET
From foreign fields to UK streets - the anatomy of an £8bn industry
The true scale of Britain's illicit drug economy was revealed yesterday with the disclosure of an internal Home Office estimate that there are 300 major importers, 3,000 wholesalers and 70,000 street dealers involved in a trade with a turnover of between £7bn and £8bn a year.
The Home Office research says the average dealer has an annual turnover of £100,000 a year, many drug operations employ salaried staff as "runners and storers" and raise their heroin prices by as much as £1,000 a kilo as demand peaks at Christmas.
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