Recent drug seizures in the St. Monica's Mission area known as "42nd Street" provide enough evidence that the neighbourhood is still a drugs supermarket of sorts.

But Janet Francis, director of the KIE day camp which relocated to Mission Hall after being thrown out of its previous premises, remains undeterred and says the camp plans to be there next year.

And Police are lauding the involvement of the public in fighting the drugs scourge - in St. Monica's and other notorious spots around the Island.

Mrs. Francis made front page news earlier this year when the camp moved into the area.

"My aim was just to find a place to run the programme," she said yesterday. "It wasn't my aim to move into anyone's turf or prove any sort of point."

But the move was seen as a vote of confidence in the area and an indication that a years long campaign to take back the neighbourhood from drug dealers and revitalise the area was beginning to pay off.

"I felt safe from the beginning," Mrs. Francis told The Royal Gazette. Seventeen children attended the camp at the time. Since then the numbers have fluctuated and peaked at 33. "But we still have parents that are fearful of coming into the area," she said.

The sight of people loitering suspiciously outside the walls of St. Monica's made some parents nervous, she said. While some parents have removed their children from the camp, others contacted the authorities about suspicious activity. And two weeks ago Police raided the area and seized a quantity of drugs which had been stuffed into the walls. Those inside were oblivious to all the excitement.

A Police spokesman told The Royal Gazette that the "problem areas" are "visited frequently" by the Narcotics Department and the Police Support Unit, at times aided by a K9 Unit.

"The seizures made are often relatively small, but they are also regular, and the frequency of their visits means that Police are a constant threat to drug dealers in these areas... I must stress, however, that the Police have not been alone in this effort," said spokesman Coleman Easton.

"There has also been some encouraging response from members of the community who have seen that the information they supply to Police can have very positive results in their neighbourhood."

The most recent drug arrests in the St. Monica's area concerned cocaine and marijuana.

Police arrested a 20 year old Pembroke man for possession and a 35 year old Southampton man for obstruction. Both were arrested under the Misuse of Drugs Act at the end of last month.

Mrs. Francis insists the children are safe - partly because of the Police presence, but also because the neighbourhood residents are telling the drug dealers and buyers to move away from Mission Hall where the camp is held.

The people who buy the drugs are from outside the area, she said. "You'd be amazed at who shows up here to buy - all sorts of men, women, young people and seniors, black and white," she said. But, since the raid, added Mrs. Francis, things have been " very quiet".