Police raided London venue 93 Feet East over the weekend during a citywide crackdown on licensing offences.
Located on Brick Lane, 93 Feet East is a bar and live music venue with club parties on the weekend. Police targeted the venue as part of Operation Condor, the third in a series of similar raids. According to the BBC, this Operation Condor brought 4,000 officers to more than 5,000 premises in search of licensing offences, which included violations to liquor laws, "immigration breaches" and drug activity.
The raid at 93 Feet East was one of the biggest overall: 175 officers descended on the club in total, including a helicopter and dog units. According to the police report, five people were arrested on suspicion of possessing Class A drugs, another two "on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of drugs" and one more "for being the owner/occupier of premises being concerned in the supply drugs." One person was also arrested on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant, and another for being drunk and disorderly. The club was closed as a result of the raid, but was open again the following evening.
Met Police Commander Mak Chishty considers the raids a success, saying: "Yet again we have seen Operation Condor bring in excellent results from our concerted efforts involving thousands of officers being deployed all over London over the past two days." He went on to say: "Licensing impacts upon everyday community life - in our shops and supermarkets this means people do not sell knives, harmful substances or alcohol to young people; in our pubs and clubs it means that alcohol is sold and consumed in a responsible way, on our roads it means that vehicles, such as taxis are properly licensed and safe."
