Ghanaian Crack Cocaine Ring Smashed

LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Tuesday that they had smashed an international drugs ring, suspected by investigators of having masterminded the biggest crack cocaine operations in London.

Armed officers arrested seven people in a swoop on homes in London that lasted until dawn on Tuesday, a police spokesman said.

The group is suspected of being part of a professional drug smuggling ring linked to major organized crime syndicates in the United States and Africa.

No drugs were found during the raids, which followed several months of surveillance, but sources said this was because those detained were thought to be at ``the top of the ladder.\'\'

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. customs officers were involved in the investigation and arrests have been already been made in the U.S., the police spokesman said.

``We have successfully thwarted one of, if not the biggest, crack cocaine operations in London,\'\' said Detective Superintendent Steve Gwilliam, of the Metropolitan Police\'s Serious and Organized Crimes Group.

Two men in their 30s and a woman in her 40s were arrested in the first raid in south London on Monday evening, which was followed by four arrests during dawn raids on Tuesday in north London.

``We have effectively cut off one the capital\'s main crack cocaine supplies at its source,\'\' Gwilliam said.

It is understood that the drugs involved were smuggled from Ghana through Belgium and the Netherlands before being shipped or flown into Britain.

The suspects were being held at police stations across London.

London has been hit by an increasingly violent battle for control of the capital\'s hard drugs trade.