Party Vibe

they’ve been doing this since before I was born and the “new” law is simply a revamp of one what existed in the 1980s and 1990s and was only stopped in more optmistic times 10 years ago where the UK was rich enough that the loss of productivity caused by drug use stopped being much of a problem.

however if cops are going to all the trouble to create these fake identities they are not going to bother with small time drug users – this would be part of a larger operation deployed to stop the sort of middle level dealer what thinks he or she is above the law and uses a festival like this as a major sales opportunity.

rather than being paranoid, simply be discreet about your drug use and purchasing (even at raves) and you won’t come unstuck.

unfortunately drugs are illegal by international consensus and agreement.

That said a lot of people who think they are “middle level” are lower down the chain as there are a lot of drug dealers about these days – even more until the remaining stocks of cathinones are shifted.

there have been and always will be covert policing operations at large festivals and all music events as a large part of the music industry is funded by drugs and organised crime. Hell, the cops even tell you this openly on their websites! in fact until Muslims started blowing themselves up MI5 etc was watching the drugs trade as they thought it was a foreign plot to destabilise the country, although Muslims are of course also involved in heroin trafficking (as you would expect with much opium growing in their countries) so there is still also a crossover between anti-drugs and anti terrorism ops.

at the moment better for folk to keep their heads down, accept the laws as they are as they are not changing in the short term and by harm reduction and sensible use try and get another opportunity in the future to move towards decriminalisation.

there is no sure fire way of not being caught, other than not selling or even passing drugs to strangers at festivals or anywhere else!

there was also a time I would have suggested openly admitting to dealing on a public forum was foolish – however there are so many youths bragging about stuff they haven’t even done even to the mainstream media – I’m not saying you’re one of these but the fact these walter mitty types exist makes it pointless for cops to go just by net traffic.

however, if you offer a cop drugs (as a free sample), cops cannot legally take drugs at any time (even when undercover). They would be guilty of crime as anyone else and colleagues who cover up for them are equally guilty – or even if they were corrupt they’d be para about getting stitched with ketamine or phenazapam for coke :laugh_at:

police corruption its quite a serious offence but on one level could be hard to prove, however in todays world there’s other kids with cameraphones everywhere watching out themselves for stuff like this. I don’t think its as easy as people think (even coppers) for a cop with no experience of drug culture to pose as a naïve young customer, though some cops are former ravers.

all that said you could be 100% surveillance aware but your “best mate” / “best customer” might get busted for something and decide to grass you up rather than take the penalty themselves. Or you get dobbed in by some folk you thought were sound but are jealous of your girlfriend. Those things can happen when dealing, its happened to people I know. if you’re going to deal you have to be always prepared for the consequences which include getting caught.

indeed, a lot of folk quite wrongly suspect perfectly decent ravers who just happen to be older, who are clean cut and from ethnic minorities (I was regularly accused of being CID especially when taking photos until people saw me getting mashed with the crews) – or don’t go around in large crowds! In 20 years I have known of CID at (illegal) raves only 3 times.

I would expect them to be more prevalent at legal festivals as public gatherings have to operate within a nations law. Even Dutch raves have searches and dogs these days.

quite frankly there’s nothing you can do othe than be psychologically prepared for being caught. you are a footsoldier in the war of drugs and should expect a certain amount of hostile enemy action.

a lot of them are in fact metpol rather than our locals. Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex have this sort of “buddy” agreement with the Met so rural and urban cops train together so they can work together on bigger ops. Its a bit like a real life “Hot Fuzz”…

I saw this a few days ago. I’m not even shocked other than I thought the cops stopped bothering with this in the 1990s, but then again as the environmental / activist groups have stepped up their game in recent years (having slacked off a bit in economic good times) and are carrying out “harder” actions (such as trespassing on active power stations and coal processing plants) its hardly surprising that covert actions are used against them..

on PV its rare to get serving cops bothering with deep cover stuff (we had one suspect about 3 years ago, I think they disappeared when they got rumbled). there was a fair bit when SE England and EA scenes were more active. What did happen a lot were journalists and suprisingly young vigilantés with sympathies towards landowners posing as ravers…

Although its good smokeitup posted the IM stuff here for the sake of discussion I don’t think its quite comparable. most people selling drugs are in fact small potatoes compared to hardcore environmentalist groups trespassing on bits of critical national infrastructure.

Its true that in some circumstances cops can get away with doing small amounts of drugs but certain drugs particularly psychedelics would just spin out someone with a cop/military mindset so much they would be unable to cope, plus the money involved in most psychedelic deals doesn’t warrant the undercover stuff compared to coke or pill dealing.

most drug dealers caught by undercovers tend to be the more arrogant ones what think they are “untouchable”. What gets me is these folk what get a bug planted in their car – if I was doing something really contentious I’d be sweeping my vehicles for any sort of device or stray transmissions and/or only do my own maintenance work or use mechanics I really trust. Hell, I do that with my bikes anyway, not because I’m paranoid of feds but because I want them to run well…