CPS Crown Prosecutor Nilam Salh explains the decision to charge in Operation Circle
"A lot of the people that we are charging within this operation could have been diverted in another way but because of the scale of the problem and the attempts that there had been prior to this to try and alleviate the problem it was felt that the way forward and the only way to alleviate the problem was to charge.
"People have children and they don't want their children looking out of their windows and seeing this happen on the street.
"We have been in communication with the police from the beginning. They consulted us at a very early stage and we talked about the type of operation it should be, the kind of evidence that we would need, and how far we were willing to go, and what area we were going to target.
"Hopefully the message that the lead convictions will send out today to the community at large is that we will listen to you and we will take onboard your views and we will act to make your life better in the community.
"This is particularly satisfying because we will see a real end result hopefully in lessening the problems in that particular area."
