A senior police officer who led an operation to clamp down on cocaine dealing in the island says the prevalence of the class A drug is ‘disturbing’.

Detective Chief Inspector Michelle McKillop, of the Serious Organised Crime Unit, was in charge of Operation Nightjar which has seen 11 people jailed with terms totalling 32 years.

Operation Nightjar launched in the latter half of 2023, with Isle of Man Constabulary working alongside the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit to identify individuals actively dealing cocaine during the nighttime in Douglas.

As part of Operation Nightjar, undercover officers were deployed to seek out and identify those dealing cocaine in the capital by taking on the role of drug users looking to purchase cocaine, and used telephone calls, text messages and social media apps, including Snapchat, to contact drug suppliers and their associates.

Following the undercover operation a series of arrests were made throughout January and February this year.

Det Ch Insp McKillop believes cocaine dealing in the island is fuelling an increase in violent crime.

She said: ‘The prevalence of cocaine dealing on the streets of Douglas is quite disturbing. This island is relatively safe but we are seeing an increase in serious assaults and the severity of assaults which are linked to organised crime.

‘Vulnerable members of the community are being exploited to facilitate organised crime locally. Not only that but the blasé attitude we have seen towards dealing class A controlled drugs by these individuals is a concern.

‘We are working closer than ever with partners both locally and in the UK to proactively target key members of organised crime groups, disrupting and dismantling their empires, seizing significant amounts of drugs before they hit the streets and taking cash which has been acquired as proceeds from such criminality.

‘As you will have already seen in the media, some of the criminals in these higher echelons of these organised crime groups have had significant prison sentences imposed which should be seen as a deterrent, in so much as we will not tolerate such criminality as a society here in the Isle of Man and we will not stop our relentless pursuit of the offenders.’

Chief Constable Russ Foster says he will not tolerate organised criminals trying to exploit the island.

He said: ‘Tackling organised criminality is one of the Isle of Man Constabulary’s top priorities and, together with other law enforcement agencies, we have continued to relentlessly pursue people trying to exploit our island and we will endeavour to make the Isle of Man a hostile environment for such criminality to thrive.

‘We have taken a multi-faceted approach and are working together with Government and other law enforcement agencies to strengthen the security of our island with a view to preventing and detecting serious and organised crime.’

A total of 16 people have been sentenced during a week-long sitting of General Gaol overseen by Deemster Graeme Cook.

The first three days were taken up by mitigation from the defendants’ advocates and then sentencing took place on Thursday and Friday – believed to be the largest such sentencing exercise held in the island’s Courts of Justice.