Police smash temple 'drugs ring'

Officers found several kilos of cannabis, crack cocaine and ammunition after arresting 23 people in a 3am raid.

Weeks of 24-hour surveillance revealed the temple in St Agnes Place, Kennington, was being used as a drugs "market", police said.

Up to 600 people a day visited the former south London squat with customers travelling from across south-east England.

Rooms inside the temple, where reggae star Bob Marley is believed to have stayed in 1977, were dedicated to different types of drug, according to one senior officer.

Police believe firearms were also stored at the temple and one man was caught on surveillance footage waving a handgun outside.

Officers were alerted by temple managers who said it had been taken over by a small number of drug dealers.

Chief Superintendent Martin Bridger said undercover officers watched "hordes" of people visit the temple.

He said: "We have had up to 600 people visit on some days and we suspect that most people were using it to buy drugs. There is also clear evidence and information that there were firearms on the premises."

The 32-room temple is housed in a row of four three-storey terraced houses decorated in the Rastafarian colours of red, green and yellow. St Agnes Place was the longest continually squatted street in London until the illegal residents were cleared in 2005.