BOLTON'S drug addicts are committing crimes totalling an estimated £6.8 million a year to feed their addiction, the BEN can reveal today. The cash to fund their "fixes" is obtained mainly by selling stolen property taken from burglaries, car thefts and shoplifting. Up to 70 per cent of all crimes committed in Bolton are thought to be drug related.

And, alarmingly, 1995 has seen drug-related violence erupting on Bolton's streets.

Two men were shot as violence which blighted inner-city Manchester, boiled over and Bolton's drug barons battled for supremacy.

In Bolton a handful of major suppliers are making vast profits from the sale of drugs, aided by a network of hundreds of street dealers.

Police are seizing more drugs and arresting more dealers than ever before.

But the drug problem is still growing.

Drug addiction in Bolton has increased five-fold in the last 10 years. Police seizure of hard drugs has tripled and the number of arrests has doubled.

Heroin, amphetamine and cannabis are the main drugs on the streets of Bolton.

In Greater Manchester it is estimated that £126 million of property crime is drug-related. In the UK that figure is thought to be £2 billion.

Householders and motorists lucky enough to escape the crime blitz pay through increased insurance premiums or charges on goods.

Last year 31,880 crimes were reported in the metropolitan borough - with only Manchester and Salford recording more.

A total of £500m a year is spent in Britain on fighting the drugs problem.

A recent police study revealed that a serious heroin addict needs £29,000 a year, most of which is obtained through crime.

A single one-gramme "wrap" of heroin costs £80 on the street and many junkies need this daily.

The study estimates that an addict needs to steal £87,600 of property a year on the basis that the best price he will get for stolen property is a third of its value.

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