THE scale of drug-fuelled crime in Cleveland was laid bare this week.

As police revealed a soaring crime rate - mainly down to drugs - a report spotlights that the area has the youngest addicts on the country. Many youngsters aged 11 to 15 are also smoking and drinking.

The only consolation is that officers detected more offences last year and campaigns against drug traffickers are expected to pay dividends.

All four Cleveland police districts showed a rise in recorded offences in the year to March.

Across the force area, crimes went up 11.9pc to a total of 72,000 reported incidents. Other regions saw similar increases.

Assistant chief constable, Bryan Bell, said: "The blunt truth is that most offences in our area are down to drugs. Heroin is a scourge on our streets and crack cocaine is on the increase."

Heroin use was far above the national average, with four times more users entering treatment. Those under 20 going for treatment for addiction was five times the national norm.

"The stark reality is that 90pc are using heroin, and more than half are injecting the drug," said Mr Bell.

Drug-related crime on Teesside costs £42m a year. Offenders using several types of drugs commit eight times as many crimes as criminals who are non-users.

People spending more than £100 a week on their habit commit 30 times the number of offences as those who do not use drugs.

"Drugs are driving up crime in Cleveland," said Mr Bell. "Here we are at the sharp end and determined there will be no let-up in the war against this menace."

District drugs units have registered some successes, and more officers are joining a squad to tackle senior criminality in the drugs world.

Mr Bell cited the Dealer-A-Day campaign which has been running in Middlesbrough as showing the importance of continuing help from the public.

"Tackling crime and drugs is not a job for us alone," he said.

Cleveland Police Authority said the new figures showed that the fight against drugs must go on.

"It shows we are right in targeting resources at the evil of the drugs trade," said Coun Ken Walker.

"We are not alone in facing such a steep rise in reported crime, but these figures show the stark reality that drug-related crime is the number one threat to our communities."

The crime figures come in the wake of a report by a health authority professor which stated that drug rehabilitation units on Teesside now treat the youngest clients in the country.

In his 2001 report for Tees Health Authority, Prof Paul Johnstone said: "These are children who have not just experimented with drugs or become regular addicts. They are children who need help with their addiction."

The report also found that, in a survey of 2,000 12 to 15-year-olds, almost a quarter of girls and 15pc of boys smoke at least every week.

About ten per cent had consumed more than 14 units of alcohol the week before the survey. The same percentage of 11 to 12-year-olds had bought alcohol themselves.

See story, page 5