The new "smart" telephone kiosks installed in Swansea are claimed to be a magnet for drug addicts and dealers who are exploiting the free WiFi and calls service.
Since the panels were turned on in August, 2018 , there have been suspicions some people have been using the city centre facilities put there by BT and InLinkUK, to carry out drug deals.
A number of shoppers have contacted Wales Online having seen people apparently ordering drugs from the panels.
One said he was walking past a panel on Swansea's Oxford Street and overheard a shouted conversation into the speaker which referred to 'W1'. The slang term for crack cocaine is 'white'.
There have also been similar issues in other UK locations where the panels have been placed.
South Wales drugs support agency, Barod, backed up the claims in relation to Swansea.
Jamie Harries, service manager for Barod, said: "We are aware that the kiosks are being used for this and other things, which is no different to the old telephone kiosks."
The panels are thought to be particularly attractive to drug dealers and users because calls can be made free of charge and it's harder to track the call back to them.
InLinkUK and BT have taken action over the issue, with a specially-developed algorithm which can automatically block and disable "anti-social" calls.
The algorithm uses the frequency of attempted and connected calls, their length and distribution and insights provided by police to identify suspicious patterns and phone numbers. It can then automatically block those numbers.
In December, 2018, Tower Hamlets in London became the first council in the country to temporarily stop calls from 18 kiosks in the borough. Police claimed 20,000 calls had been made to known drug dealers in just four months.
One drug gang is thought to have made £1.28 million worth of sales from another panel in Whitechapel. After the call facility was switched off, there was a “significant decrease in anti-social behaviour” in the streets around the phones, the council reported.
South Wales Police said, however, they had nothing to suggest drug dealing from the kiosks was a "specific problem" in Swansea.
A spokesman said all sightings of suspicious behaviour should be reported to the force so it could "respond appropriately and ensure the incident is recorded and feeding into the intelligence picture."
How the panels work:
A spokesman for InLinkUK said initial studies had shown less than half a per cent of total numbers called across the InLink network were associated with anti-social behaviour and that these numbers had now been successfully blocked.
The algorithm has been deployed across all of the InLinkUK kiosks.
Matt Bird, general manager at InLinkUK, said: "We are pleased that our ongoing collaboration with local authorities has resulted in the development of this brand new technology.
"We are committed to ensuring the InLinks are a welcomed and valued part of the communities they serve, and our investment into the development of this call restriction feature means we are able to readily identify misuse and quickly put a stop to it, whilst still providing a positive free service to local communities across the UK."
