Crack cocaine worth £13,000 seized from secret stash in Doncaster woods: police column

The stash was found after a search by our officers, following a call from a member of the public, who thought they had seen someone acting suspiciously nearby.

The report was in relation to a small area of woodland, near Tickhill Road, Bawtry.

There have been complaints of drug dealing in Bawtry for a while and we had been working with the public and partners to identify those involved.

Acting on the call we had, we went out with a drugs dog, and uncovered £13,000 worth of crack cocaine on Sunday June 9.

I always tell people to contact us, and we will take action, and that is what happened here. Thank you to the member of the public who contacted us with this information. The investigation is ongoing.

We have continued to be busy in Doncaster town centre, and last week, Tuesday June 4, we made an arrest for possession of drugs with intent to supply.

The town centre CCTV room had alerted us that there was something suspicious going on outside the Frenchgate Centre. They had seen packages being passed.

We already had officers in the town centre, and they attended very quickly. We stopped and searched two people. One had one packet of spice. The other had 10 packets.

Both were arrested.

Now Paul Andrew Orwin, aged 30, of no fixed address, has been sentenced to 38 weeks in prison for possession of drugs with intent to supply.

The other male was charged with possession.

There are still issues in the town centre, but I don’t think it has slipped back to the situation it was before we increased the police presence.

There were 69 people arrested in May, and 38 in the last two two weeks as I write. These numbers show how much work we are doing in the town centre, and it is not just my officers. There is also a great deal of work being done by the council’s staff in supporting vulnerable people, and helping individuals get treatment for drugs problems.

Commercial burglaries have been an issue in the town centre in recent months. Last month we arrested 11 people for burglary in the town centre, and there have been a number of arrests this month. There were three arrested on Monday June 10 and four were arrested in the morning on Thursday June 13.

The town centre remains a priority patrol area for burglaries. We have identified an area where we want to make access more difficult – that is something that our design-out crime officer is looking at. There is a lot of work going on between us and the council.

One man has been charged with four burglaries and remanded in custody. There are still break-ins happening, but it is nowhere near the number that we were seeing up until May.

Away from the town centre, we are still running a number of speeding operations, and recent weeks have seen them at Balby, Wheatley, Lakeside, Bessacarr and Cantley.

Cantley has also seen action from our officers to deal with serious antisocial behaviour recently – culminating in the issuing of a Section 35 dispersal order. These are issued to deal with individuals engaging in anti-social behaviour or crime and disorder not only when they have occurred or are occurring, but when they are likely to occur.

The order was in place for 48 hours, and put in place after stones were thrown at one of our community support officers by nuisance youths after she went out to deal with antisocial behaviour.

The incidents were around St Wilfrid’s Court.

Shops had been complaining about youths running in and out of the shops and climbing on the roofs.

There were people banging on windows and shouting abuse at customers, and people walking out of the chip shop without paying. There were cases of people trying to set fire to trees and, trying to paint indecent images on trees.

Someone was even reported to have tried to pick up a dog and throw it at a shop.

A number of young people have been identified and their parents will be spoken to. The matter has been referred to our anti-social behaviour team, and is something that we have on our radar.