"The logistics speak for themselves: Six million tabs of LSD were recovered by the police, the largest haul of drugs ever known. A squad of 800 detectives were involved. Some 120 people were arrested throughout the UK and France. Stashes of LSD worth £100 million were unearthed. Over £800,000 in money was discovered hidden in Swiss bank accounts. And 17 defendants were jailed for a total of 170 years.

Those are merely the bare bones of Operation Julie, a drugs bust that took years to organise and an operation that has, thirty years later, become a concoction of fact and fantasy.

The statistics, even looked at today, are staggering. But it wasn't the size of the operation and the extensiveness of the drugs ring (in fact there were two rings existing side by side) that shocked the rural population of mid Wales but rather the fact that enough LSD to meet the needs of half the world had been manufactured and marketed in the sleepy hinterlands of Tregaron and Carno.

The early 1970s saw an influx of flotsam and jetsam from the cities to rural Wales. We witnessed a mixture of hippies, yuppies and those who had been attracted to what they believed to be the good life.

Pop stars such as the Stones, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon - it is possible that Bob Dylan could be included among them - visited Llanddewi Brefi where an eccentric pop music adherent had settled.

He boasted an invitation card to Hendrix's funeral. Stuck on the card was a boiled sweet injected with a tab of LSD. I know, I saw it on his mantlepiece at his cottage, Cefn Bedd.

Cannabis taking became a fact of life, firstly among incomers. But it gradually spread and even became ac accepted part of rural life. But LSD was another matter.

It only happened in Sloane Square or in Oxbridge. To the farmers of Tregaron, LSD merely meant pre-decimalisation money, pounds, shillings and pence, which some of them still hoarded in milk churns hidden in back parlours! Never trust a bank, especially a Cardiganshire bank!

The first sign that something was up was the arrival of strangers to Tregaron, strangers that somehow did not fit the incomer image.

It was assumed, when they were seen at local pubs, that they were bird watchers who had come to view the Red Kite, a bird of prey that was then unique to the Cambrian Mountains and was enjoying a revival from what had been almost extinction.

The strangers did not attempt to correct these impressions. They tended to keep to themselves and did not over-embellish their answers to questions asked by curious locals.

Then it was whispered that they were closet gays who lived in London and were looking for anonymity. They must have cottoned on. Soon they were joined by two women.

The crew all lived in a farmhouse, Bronwydd a few miles from the village. To avoid snooping postmen they installed a post delivery box at the head of the lane. But they were neither bird watchers nor, as far as I know were they closet gays.

Whether bent or straight (in either meaning), they were all police officers, led by Detective Chief Inspector Dick Lee.

One of the women officers' first name, that of Police Sergeant Julie Taylor, was adopted as the code name for the operation.

I became involved with the case completely by accident. One of those being watched was chemist Richard Kemp, who lived with his partner Christine Bott some two miles out of Tregaron at Penlleinau.

He commuted regularly between his home and Plas Llysyn, a rambling old mansion in Carno near Llanidloes, a distance of some 50 miles away.

In April 1975 he was involved in a fatal accident when his Land Rover, carrying a load of tiles, hit a car near Machynlleth killing a passenger in the car.

At the ensuing inquest I was covering for the Western Mail. Later I learnt that Kemp's name had rung a bell at operation headquarters and the load of tiles was dismantled. Among the tiles police found scraps of paper bearing the chemical formula for LSD. This was the vital information they were looking for.

On 26 March 1977, in Wales, England and France, Operation Julie officers swooped and arrested some 120 suspects. The case at Bristol came to an end on 8 March 1978. Two of the main players, however, had fled. Now, 30 years later they are still at large.

Following the arrests and trial, locals would pretend that they knew all along of the activities of both police and LSD manufacturers and pushers.

This is now part of the legend. But even before the arrests there were bizarre occurrences. One local swore that some weeks previous to the arrests he had been offered thousands of pounds by a complete stranger for looking after a holdall.

Believing the man to be an IRA activist, he refused.

Meanwhile, two young men who had settled in Llanddewi Brefi were the talk of the village. Apparently they would ply locals with free drinks and reputedly gave away Rolex watches. They would also be seen lighting joints with five-pound notes. One of them was a bit player while the other was jailed for distributing.

Yet today no-one in Llanddewi Brefi will have a bad word to say against them. And they were genuinely nice blokes. One of them, named later as a dealer, went to Chester Races with some of the locals. Running that day was a horse called Cannabis. One of the bookies called to his colleague: 'What price Cannabis?' To which the dealer replied: 'Just a fiver an ounce in Llanddewi Brefi!'

There were also accusations of a tip-off by disgruntled officers. Rumour has it that Princess Margaret was involved with one of the main suspects and that the police hierarchy delayed the swoop until she was well out of the way.

Disgusted with such tactics, it is rumoured that there were secret calls made to some of the suspects warning them to make themselves scarce.

After a suspect - the dealer - was arrested at Llanddewi Brefi, nothing incriminating was found at his home, even though it was known locally that he kept wads of notes in a Corn Flakes packet.

It is known that around midnight before the morning of the arrest he received a telephone call at one of the local pubs. He hurriedly left through the back door. A few hours later he was arrested. There are still rumours of stashes of LSD and cash hidden on the mountain above the village.

The LSD manufactured at Tregaron and Carno was regarded as top quality. It is said that some of it is still being sold.

Today, the members of the drugs ring are largely regarded as likeable rogues who could well be the natural heirs to that old crook Twm Shôn Cati who lived in Tregaron during the sixteenth century by existing on his wits.

They are also described as idealists, disciples of Timothy Leary whose only desire was to turn on the world. But it is worth noting that the motive behind almost all the protagonists' involvement was financial gain rather than idealism.

Apologists point out that they did not kill anyone. But questions should be asked regarding the death caused by Kemp's accident. Was it an accident? Kemp and Bott were involved in at least four car accidents during the time of Operation Julie. Could they themselves have unknowingly been affected by the LSD they were producing?

Thirty years have now gone by. All who were convicted have served their time. Some have rejoined society and are following their previous careers. But there are still unanswered questions as far as Operation Julie is concerned. And around Tregaron, Llanddewi Brefi and Carno, the story of the strangers and the druggies still lives on. Although it is by now more legend than story."

Article by Lyn Ebenezer