The North London neighbourhood where dealers put fear into café owners and hide drugs in shutters
Drug dealers were swiftly back in business after police swarmed a crime-filled street near Finsbury Park nine months ago, shop owners say. One terrified worker, who refused to give their name for fear of having her windows broken, accused local police of 'staging the raid for press' as she suggested the Met Police's new strategy to 'Clear, Hold, Build' in Blackstock Road was not going to plan.
Once identified by the London Assembly as a red-light district, this part of North London has a long reputation for brazen drug dealing, sexual harassment, and the occasional burst of violence. In 2008, surveillance identified gangs using the cluster of cafés and internet cafés for drug dealing, money laundering, selling stolen goods, and trading fake documents. In response, police launched Operation Mista, sending more than 600 officers in riot gear to raid the street to root out an organised criminal network.
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Around 20 months later, after a flood of letters from residents complaining it was still a crime hotspot, police returned in force to flush the criminals out again. Flash forward to another raid in December 2023, which looked like a scene from The Wire, and further raids across the wider area in January this year, it appears the Sisyphean cycle of 'residents complain, police respond, crime returns' continues, with long-term results hard to come by.
Though it's well over a decade since Blackstock Road was dominated by Afghan-run cafes, and the North African businesses that led some to dub it 'Little Algeria', the street has largely been spared from gentrification with only a small handful of the sort of boutique bakeries, coffee shops, and pizza franchises that have come to characterise many other parts of London. We made sure to speak to businesses old and new, as we took a measure of the Met Police's latest attempt to get rid of the crime network.
The 'Love Finsbury Park' initiative follows a similar operation carried out at Grahame Park estate in Barnet in late-2023, which led to 160 arrests on suspicion of almost 300 different offences over a two month period. Islington's local police chief, Superintendent Jack May-Robinson, has previously acknowledged 'significant safety concerns linked to drug-dealing and drug use, violence, and violence against women and girls' on Blackstock Road and told MyLondon the most recent operation was focussed on women's safety.
But, nine months after we watched police descend on three businesses in Blackstock Road, local shop owners are not convinced the approach has worked. They all refused to be named for this piece, such is the fear imposed by local drug dealers, one of whom proudly insisted 'everything is okay in the area' during a brief conversation we had in a café doorway.
An Algerian café owner, who became collateral damage in the Met's crackdown on organised crime, described how he was put in handcuffs during the raid. He claimed he had called police around 10 times about alleged drug dealing, but only felt their response when he was arrested himself. He was frank about the issues on the doorstep of his business, but claimed it was fleeing dealers who threw bags of cannabis on his café floor in response to the appearance of plain clothes officers.
And while he acknowledged the continued presence of drug dealers - pointing them out to us - he claimed he was powerless to stop them using his café as a base. He also said his CCTV had not been working before the raid, which meant police could not establish if any illegal activity had happened. "They come here to do it, but I can't search them," he said, adding: "They are clever."
The café owner said he was not scared to speak about criminals because 'they respect me', but would not allow us to identify him or the café in case it led to a fight. He described 'everyone' getting their drugs from the area, hinting at middle-class drug users 'like you guys', and claimed dealers were shamelessly using weighing scales in the street before the raid last December. Following his arrest, he said he was never charged with any crime.
A barber, who had two customers arrested during the raid, also said his business had felt the effects of the crackdown as he denied having any involvement with the crimes of his customers. "Of course it affects us. When people see police, they do not feel comfortable," he said, adding: "We are not involved in criminality at all. They come because they are from the area, but we do not know who the client is."
'The police officers come too early'
One hardware shop owner, who did not suffer the ignominy of being handcuffed, said 'not much has changed' since December's raid, with drug dealers just moving further up the street, or into Finsbury Park, when police are around, then back to their usual spots at night once daytime foot patrols have gone.
She described the tactics dealers use to distance themselves from their products in case they are arrested, including storing drugs in the shutters above shops, throwing them underneath cars, and leaving drugs on residential walls for buyers to collect. After a baffling series of approaches by smokers asking her if she sells cigarettes, she also hinted there may be a nearby shop boosting sales with under the counter items.
Like many of the business owners on Blackstock Road, she questioned why police visibility drops off just at the time when criminals are most active. "The minute the police come by they start walking, but the officers come too early. Drug dealers do not come out until the evening," she said, later adding: "The raid was kinda staged for press, wasn't it?"
This sentiment was echoed by another exasperated café owner, who said he faces closure within three months if the area continues to be a 'safe haven' for criminals. While he said the raid had 'made a bit of a difference', he suggested groups of fighting and wolf-whistling men were still diverting would-be customers away from his food and drink business.
He also claimed there were gang spotters 'everywhere', to circumvent the policing response, and claimed the local drug trade was inviting addicts to the street, some of whom he accused of stealing food and taking money from his tips cup.
"The sad thing is, I am probably leaving because of this. The footfall I get for coffee and food is diverting. That 20 to 30 per cent affects me, on top of the cost of living and prices going up," he said, adding: "When I invested in here, I thought everything would okay. I think, in a sense, I have tried to make a change in the street, but if authorities are not helping, well you can only do so much."
Blackstock Road also has a history of sexual harassment, with local press reporting on the issue in 2010 when a local police chief said women were being grabbed by their arms and legs. Another local newspaper report from 2020 found a woman had been harassed at least 50 times on the street since she turned 16.
Asked about this, a female barista we spoke to said she had experienced harassment through the hatch in the wall where she works. Other business owners we spoke to reported similar incidents, directedly mainly towards Muslim women.
'Drug dealers are protecting the community'
One boy, employed by a local business, insisted there might be some merit to drug dealers. "The road is basically run by the streets. There's obviously drug dealers, but the drug dealers here keep the crackheads off the road from pursuing people," he said.
The 17-year-old went on to describe an incident when he, a family member, and a colleague were allegedly targeted by a drug-user wielding a hair-dryer. He said his sister reported the incident to police, but to date the suspect had not been brought to justice.
Asked if the incident may have been avoided if the user was not attracted to the area by dealers, he said: "How I think about it, it's a way of making money but in a way they are protecting the community. Obviously it's not fair they are supplying drugs to people that abuse the substances, but not everyone has a perfect story. They have to do what they have to do, if that's how they make money."
His view, not shared by everyone, is part of a perception that local policing is ineffective. The Met Police was approached multiple times to address this, but did not provide a comment at the time of publication.
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