Drug seizures fall as criminals exploit gaps in Britain’s borders
BRITAIN’S drug crisis was laid bare yesterday as the number of seizures by police and border guards fell to the lowest level since 2004.
Police and Border Force officers carried out 135,728 operations in England and Wales in 2017/18.
This is a fall of two per cent on the previous year and nearly 44 per cent down on a decade ago. In 2004, there were 107,359.
It comes days after police chiefs and politicians blamed Britain’s booming drug trade for rising levels of violent crime.
Police and Border Force officers seized 3,559 kilos of cocaine last year – an estimated street value of £178million. The figures prompted fears that criminals are exploiting gaps in Britain’s borders.
Lucy Moreton, of the ISU immigration services union, said: “Primarily, it’s a lack of staff. There are significant points of the border to smuggle in drugs, firearms and illegal migrants. There are not the staff and there are not the resources.”
The total volume of Class A drugs, mainly shipped from South America and the Middle East to mainland Europe, stopped from entering the UK by Border Force, dropped by more than a quarter.
The Home Office report revealed: “Although Border Force accounted for just five per cent of drug seizures in 2017/18, the proportion they seized in terms of quantity was much larger.
“This is because the agency is often involved in operations where large quantities of drugs are seized, for example at airports or ferry ports.”