Published: Thursday, 17th June, 2010 1:09pm

Pub targeted in raid

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By Jennifer Cauley

ALMOST 50 cops raided a Barrhead pub last week in a bid to nail a suspected local drug baron.

A selection of specially trained officers burst into Rumours bar around lunchtime on Friday after gathering information on an alleged dealer.

Passers-by looked on in amazement as the pub on Cross Arthurlie Street was turned over by officers searching for illegal substances.

And although cops failed to uncover a hidden stash in the storm, they said they were delighted with the success of the high profile raid and the message it sent out.

The suspect - who police allege is local to the area - was allegedly conducting dodgy dealings across the pub. Police chiefs moved to smash the drug racket after being tipped off by residents.

The blitz formed part of a crackdown on organised crime in Barrhead and those involved stressed that such a show of force was crucial in getting across the zero tolerance message.

Bosses say that whilst they had to let their suspect go after a few hours, they received enough information to build up a picture of their next target.

Operation Pentium saw 48 plain clothed and uniformed officers band together to tackle the seedy culture of underworld drugs and police admit the days of knocking on doors in the hope of finding things are gone.

Detective Inspector Pat Campbell was one of the operation runners.

He said: "We have to be more clever than them now.

"It's all about financial and technological gain for these people. The public were telling us what was going on in that public house and it is our responsibility to tackle that.

"It would appear that the individual is accepted in that pub and so carried out work there.

"The landlord appeared to be unaware that this was happening on the premises.

"We have to remove the threats to residents and this operation was a way to show the community that we are acting on what they are telling us."

Barrhead's top cop Kenny Graham fully supports the initiative.

The chief inspector said: "This was a public reassurance exercise. Too long has it been common knowledge that Rumours has been used for dealing class A drugs and the people doing so thought they could act with impunity.

"This is a very strong message to those people that it will not be tolerated and Strathclyde Police will act accordingly.

"Although on the surface we didn't recover any drugs we did have good intelligence which led us to conduct the operation. This will be the first of many such exercises in the local area."

Rumours will be the subject of a report to East Renfrewshire Council's Licensing Board.

No one from Rumours was available for comment when the News tried to contact them.