‘We have a drugs gang outside our front door’ – Inside Croydon

Croydon College has a drugs gang operating outside its front door at East Croydon, looking to sell Class A drugs to students, some as young as 16, as they go to and from their daily studies.

Chemistry courses: The Met Police has not responded to the appeal for patrols around Croydon College

That’s according to the college’s chief executive, Caireen Mitchell.

Appeals to the police for help and additional patrols in the area have gone unanswered.

“We have a drugs gang operating outside of our front door near East Croydon,” Mitchell said.

“How can this happen? That sitting there is our biggest problem and it is very difficult to operate in that environment.”

The drugs gang operation has been a cause of tension for college staff and students, with fears that it may also be a cause of violent crime.

Mitchell’s comments were put to the Met Police, who told Inside Croydon that further talks with Croydon College’s senior staff were “in the pipeline”, without providing any commitment to providing officers on patrol regularly on the campus, which is close to the busy East Croydon Station, the Fairfield Halls arts center and two recently completed large blocks of flats.

County lines: the National Crime Agency is running a poster campaign. But police patrols are rarely seen around Croydon College

According to research conducted by the Mayor of London’s Office, Croydon is among the five boroughs with the highest number of people in county lines gangs. County lines gangs traffic drugs, often targeting teenagers and younger children to act as “mules”.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told Inside Croydon: “In recent weeks we have met with the college leadership team to discuss concerns and further meetings are in the pipeline.

“The safety of Croydon Town Center as a whole is a matter we take seriously, while fully accepting there is always more work to be done.”

The police sought to emphasize the work that they have been doing using Live Facial Recognition, almost a mile away at West Croydon. “Separately in other proactive operations we have arrested a number of people suspected of dealing drugs who have been charged and are awaiting trial.

“Our proactive work in the town center will continue throughout the summer working closely alongside partners such as the local authority, BID and voluntary sector.

“In addition to robust enforcement and proactive operations, our youth engagement and Operation Adder teams will be working to educate and divert young people away from being tempted to purchase controlled drugs as this then encourages the issue further.”

Yet despite the appeals for more physical policing presence at Croydon College during term time, the Metropolitan Police have given no firm commitment.

Shopkeepers and traders in Croydon’s ancient street market, Surrey Street, say that their appeals for an increased police presence to deter drug gangs operating between the market stalls during broad daylight have also been ignored. Yesterday saw another knife crime incident, with a shopkeeper stabbed by a pair of thieves who were arrested and charged with GBH, theft and carrying an offensive weapon.

‘Very difficult to operate’: Caireen Mitchell, Croydon College CEO

Surrey Street was the scene of the most recent murder on the borough’s streets, when Rijkaard Siafa, 22, was attacked in April.

The previous, Tory government had long promised to ban Zombie knives, machetes and other large, bladed weapons, but never did.

Chris Philp, the Croydon South MP who was the Conservative government minister for policing, had promised increased funding for knife crime “hotspots”, including Thornton Heath and Surrey Street. But this funding would be for CCTV cameras, not actual police officers.

Such is the fear of attacks in Croydon, following the murder last year of 14-year-old schoolgirl Elianne Andam, some schools say that their parents will no longer allow their children to travel unaccompanied.

Markieu Hayden, the headteacher of Norbury High girls’ school, last month admitted publicly that she and her staff had been confiscating knives from their pupils, who carry the weapons “for protection”. Hayden linked this spike in weapon-carrying to the Andam tragedy.

In 2023, 11 people were killed on the streets of Croydon.

Croydon Council has a Neighborhood Safety Board, which since 2018 has been chaired by “community organizer” Donna Murray-Turner.

The Board is supposed to be the borough-wide forum for the public and councilors to scrutinize the police’s operations in the borough. With Murray-Turner as chair, Croydon’s Neighborhood Safety Board has not held a single meeting since 2019.

• Additional reporting by Vimal Vivegananda
  

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