LONDON - London's Soho district has more fake drug dealers and prostitutes than actual perpetrators of those crimes, a senior police officer says.

Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Rowell said the number of fake drug dealers in Soho is nearly double their actual counterparts, while nearly 15 fake prostitutes frequent the district to rob unsuspecting customers, The Daily Telegraph said Friday.

The fake drug dealers merely provide customers with substances such as wax and licorice in lieu of crack cocaine or marijuana, Rowell said.

Rowell said the emergence of such fake drug dealers and prostitutes came about after police made a coordinated effort to clean up Soho.

But he told the Telegraph hundreds of tourists consistently visit the London district searching for illegal substances or activities.

"A lot of visitors are thinking in the past and these days Soho has been cleaned up," Rowell said.

"Yet hundreds of visitors from out of London come to Soho after the theaters have emptied looking for illegal after-hours activities."

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