Information given to the confidential Police hotline Crime Stoppers led directly to two major drug busts, an action group meeting was told last night.

Acting Inspector Randolph Liverpool was speaking to a meeting of the St.

George's Action Group where he revealed the key role played by the telephone link.

He also revealed that since Colin Coxall took over as Commissioner new ground had been made in the fight against drugs and that `target teams' of officers targeting dealers and `street teams' were now in place.

But he said Crime Stoppers had played an important role in the fight against drugs and some of the information was "specific and accurate''.

As a result he said drug dealers were losing faith in people around them and starting to run drugs around Bermuda themselves.

"In my opinion, as a result of Crime Stoppers dealers are being flushed out.

They do not trust people as they used to. They are handling the drugs themselves and because of that we can catch them,'' he told the meeting.

"In the last nine months two major drug dealers have been caught that we have been trying to catch for 15 or 20 years.'' The St. George's Action Group is an organisation set up to try and help the fight against crime and has regular meetings in the town.

Mr. Coxall attended the last meeting and was there last night when he outlined the success in combating crime in St. George's.

Figures he released at the meeting showed that in the first nine months of this year crime had fallen. House break-ins fell from 103 cases in the first nine months of 1995 to 39 this year.

Stealing fell from 194 cases in the first nine months of 1995 to 68 this year and vehicle crime fell from 324 over the first nine months of 1995 to 169 over the same period this year.

"I think that the Eastern Division has done very well. Things have gone extremely well for the Force and for this division,'' said Mr. Coxall.

The meeting was part of the Action Group's aim of developing a community response to the drug problem and to see what action was being taken.

Group spokeswoman Dominique Smith said: "We believe that the drug problem has to be fought by the whole community and to that end the emphasis of the work of the Group is directed to efforts within the community.'' CRIME CRM