£2m of heroin seized in largest ever recovery of drug in Lothians

• Forensic officers worked into the evening to catalogue the massive drugs find. Picture: greg macvean

Dozens of officers swooped on the first-floor flat in Sighthill View shortly after midnight yesterday as part of a intelligence-led operation.

Officers in body armour broke down the side door of the flat with a battering ram before discovering the huge amount of heroin being stored in the property.

A team of ten forensic officers were still working into yesterday evening to collect, catalogue and test the massive drug haul.

Four police vans were stationed in the street yesterday afternoon along with forensic unit vehicles, while uniformed officers stood guard at the flat.

Three men were arrested following the raid and were set to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today in connection with the find.

Residents said the flat had been occupied by two men in their 20s who had only lived there for a matter of months.

A neighbour said: "I had just gone to bed when I was woken up by a massive bang a few minutes after midnight. It frightened the life out of me, but it was officers going through the door and shouting 'police' as they went in. I saw dozens of officers swarming about and lots of police cars.

"There's been police vans sitting there all day and officers going in and out. They've not actually been round to tell us what's happening yet."

Another resident said: "That house has been very quiet. I don't think the guys staying there have been in for more than a few months. I've never seen people going in and out like they were dealing from there.

"This is a nicer part of Sighthill, but drugs are so rife in the area that I'm not surprised it has happened here."

Yesterday's is the biggest recovery of heroin ever made by the force and forms the latest in a series of seizures of the Class A drug this year.

In June, a police swoop on a vacant property in Magdalene Drive yielded a 40,000 haul of heroin. Two large bags of brown powder were discovered inside the house in a raid carried out under Operation Adrenalin, an ongoing police action to tackle the drug trade in the Capital. Approximately 400 grammes of heroin were recovered at the address.

Then, in July, police confiscated heroin with an estimated value of 4000 during a raid on a property in Stenhouse.

The previous largest haul in the Lothians was 500,000 worth of heroin recovered at Waverley Station in March 2005.

The drugs were seized by officers from the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency as part of an inquiry targeting serious organised crime.A police spokesman said: "Three men in their 20s have been arrested on the west side of Edinburgh in connection with a seizure of heroin with an approximate street value of nearly 2m. They were charged with being concerned in the supply of Class 'A' controlled drugs and will be appearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court."