Drug gangs have turned Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool into ‘no-go’ areas as terrifying as the ghettos of Brazil and Mexico, warned the UN narcotics chief.

Hamid Ghodse, president of the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board, in a disturbing report said the inner-cities of the UK are now run by heavily-armed gangs as seen in most dangerous parts of Brazil and Mexico.

Professor Hamid claimed there was “a vicious cycle of social exclusion and drugs problems and fractured communities” in these cities. He said several communities in the UK were locked in a “downward spiral” due to growing poverty and crime.

In the International Narcotics Control Board’s annual report, INCB president explained that drug traffickers, organised crime and drug users tend to propagate in developed or developing countries like they have grown in Brazil, Mexico and in the United States and only law enforcement can’t fight the epidemic.

Communities suffering the drug abuse are called on to offer prevention programmes, treatment and rehabilitation services by the UN. The UN board blamed celebrities’ use of illicit drugs as a factor behind the growing normalisation of certain forms of drug misuse.

Senior British police officers, Tim Hollis, reacted angrily on the UN drugs agency report saying “I simply do not recognise the reference to ‘no go’ areas in the UK. It appears to be set in the broader context of social cohesion.”

On one hand where UN reports problems in the section of Britain, Merseyside Police and West Midlands Police have denied the existence of any drug gang in the area.