BOB Ainsworth is only too aware of the Yardie threat. As a junior minister with special responsibility for illegal drugs and organised crime, he believes that treating addicts as well as tough policing is the best way of reducing the threat of drug dealing gangs.

Speaking exclusively to the Argus at his London office, Mr Ainsworth, (pictured) 48, a Home Office parliamentary under secretary, said: "We recently launched our drug strategy, targeted at deprived areas. "There is a large proportion of drug users in those areas who become problematic addicts, who commit thefts, who get into prostitution, who will almost do anything to pay for their habit.

"We need to get those people into treatment and sometimes we need to coerce them to get it."

His department has strengthened the national crime squad and national intelligence network, which work with agencies outside the country, particularly in the Caribbean. "We have had a lot of co-operation from the Jamaican government in tackling smuggling and gangs. They are hugely worried about cocaine traffickers in their own country and abroad," said Mr Ainsworth.

"Most particularly we have been working to shut down 'mule' routes from Kingston and, to a lesser extent, Montego Bay."

Mr Ainsworth said that drug carriers, or mules, may be picked up from the ghettos of Kingston. Yardies also target vulnerable people in Britain.

"There's been a big fall-off in that form of trafficking since we provided the Jamaicans with scanning equipment at their airports which picks up internally carried drugs," he said. "The Jamaican police have also sent officers over here and they have been useful in identifying criminals known to them."

To crack Yardie gangs in Gwent and the south Wales Valleys there must be cross-border co-operation between police forces.

Mr Ainsworth said: "There is a middle tier in the drugs chain, that provides things like transport down to the regions like south Wales.

"We needed to develop a regional capacity to deal with that. You cannot see the problem in south Wales in isolation, it is linked with other areas like Bristol.

"When we gave the police in Gwent £500,000 last year we ensured they co-operated with the rest of the South West. I'm glad to hear they have used the money to stop organised crime in Newport."

Mr Ainsworth said: "We have spread good practice in dealing with the phenomenon of gang violence and drug dealing.

"In Lambeth gangs were openly selling crack on the streets. By getting the police, local authorities and other agencies working together we've done a lot to shut the open markets. We've tried to pick up the drug addicts and get them into treatment and community care so that we don't push them into the wider area.

"Some of the lessons we've learnt in Lambeth we're now trying to transfer to other areas. "In the end we can have all the international co-operation in the world but the only way to really reduce these problems is to reduce demand by getting addicts into treatment."