Cooley Doesn’t say much for Millwall though: two geezers suddenly appear out of nowhere, and within six months they’re in the inner circle so to speak. Clearly not too bright.
You don't see as many now, but there was a time when the coppers loved using 'test purchase officers' to catch 'drug dealers'. A couple of officers would pose as addicts, often claiming to be new to the area and would 'test purchase' drugs whilst filming covertly.
They'd be heralded as massive clampdowns on the sale of illicit drugs. In reality, they were hugely expensive operations that managed to catch almost exclusively addicts who rwere unning for others at the very bottom of the food chain. People would be scoring, offer to give the number of their dealer to the 'TPO' and find themselves in the Crown Court. The concourse outside court would look like Night of the Living Dead. Think missing teeth and DVT.
In one case, the cover story for the two officers was that they were down from Scotland, looking for work and, whilst they were doing that, needing to score.
A hapless local addict offered to introduce them to his dealer. As they're walking to do the deed, he points out a house en route....'yeah, X used to live there. In Armley now. Got pulled on one of the police things. Two lads claiming they were down from Scotland looking for work. Turns out they were coppers'.
True story......
