Four arrests and more than a dozen seizures were made by a combined team of Police Narcotics and Central CID officers last night.

Roving through areas of Pembroke and Devonshire in a caravan of cars, 22 officers under Insp. Stuart Crockwell screeched to a halt in known hot spots -- often before men congregated under trees and around cars could react.

Insp. Crockwell, head of Central CID, along with the Narcotics Street Enforcement Units heads Det. Sgt. Robin Sherwood and Acting Det. Sgt. Dennis Astwood, were happy with the night's haul -- despite the fact it meant more paperwork.

In all, dozens of young men and a few women were searched and hundreds of people saw a strong Police presence in their neighbourhoods. Some even muttered within earshot of a Royal Gazette reporter who accompanied the drugs squad, "it's about time'' and "maybe I'll get some sleep tonight''.

But in the words of Det. Sgt. Sherwood: "I'm not concerned with winning the war -- just these little battles.'' The battle was taken directly to Court Street, Middletown, "Salt City'' or Kings Court, "42nd Street'' or St. Monica's Road, Deepdale and near the Devon Springs Recycling Centre.

There seemed to be an acceptance of the inevitability of the searches -- until one realised street dealers do not carry their products on their body.

"They're getting very good with different methods of concealment,'' Det. Sgt.

Astwood said as he processed a clutch of seizures.

"But we have a good idea what we are looking for,'' he added.

A big help to the officers were two dogs from the canine section who found most of the items which were seized.

At least two men tried to run away with one being captured and the other likely to be the subject of an arrest warrant.

Now the long process of properly identifying the seizures and prosecuting individuals if the items recovered on them turn out to be drugs.

Insp. Crockwell said late last night: "It was a good exercise between CID and Narcotics. We accomplished our goal of a seizure at each stop.

"There are a lot of areas that we didn't hit but we will get to the problem areas, I can assure you of that,'' he continued. "It wasn't just the guys on the street but the neighbourhood as well that needs to see us.

"You saw a lot of children around when we were making the searches,'' Insp.

Crockwell added. "All they were doing was watching these guys selling drugs.

They are going to think it's the right thing to do. But we're going to keep them on their toes.'' Central CID officers were also involved in a number of drug seizures and arrests which were made Wednesday night and yesterday morning.

Eleven men were arrested early yesterday morning when Marine Police and the Central CID made a joint raid on a Pembroke home.

The officers removed a large amount of what appeared to be controlled substances and drug equipment from the Rockville Lane residence.

Construction and marine items believed to be connected to a recent string of thefts were also recovered.

Police swoop on dealers And information led officers to Palm Valley in Southampton on Wednesday evening and there they found an area that had been used to cultivate what appeared to be a controlled substance.

A total of six plants were seized.

In an unrelated incident, officers, with the assistance of the canine unit, recovered an amount of plant-like material in plastic twists from Long Bay Beach on Cambridge Road in Somerset.

Elsewhere, eight pay-type envelopes containing plant-like material were found hidden inside a cigarette box near the corner of Middle Road and Ten Pin Crescent in Warwick.

CRIME CRM