<http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article3194072.ece>
25 November 2007 07:10

Government in Crisis (I): Victory to the traffickers: Heroin and cocaine
prices on the street are at record lows as seizures plummet 

The Serious Organised Crime Agency was to be Tony Blair's FBI, and it
took over as the lead agency in the battle against ever more
sophisticated drug cartels last year. Unpublished figures demonstrate
that - so far - it is losing. Paul Lashmar investigates 

Published: 25 November 2007 

Hard drug seizures at the nation's borders have plummeted, leaving
heroin and cocaine freely and cheaply available on the nation's streets,
an Independent on Sunday investigation can reveal.

Class A drug confiscations at ports and airports have tumbled for the
last four years and serious question marks are now being raised about
the ability of the UK's "FBI", the Serious Organised Crime Agency
(Soca), to combat drug smuggling.

Less than 3 tons of cocaine was seized in 2006-07 compared with over 9
tons in 2004-05 and 1 ton of heroin seized in 2006-07 compared to nearly
2.5 tons in 2004-05, according to official government statistics. Over
the same period, ready availability has reduced the street price of
heroin by £10 a gram since 2004 to £43. Ten years ago heroin was selling
at £70 a gram.

While ministers insist overall drug use is down - mainly due to a fall
in cannabis use among the young - the figures hide a disturbing rise in
class A drug use, particularly cocaine abuse among young people. The
Government's own figures, released quietly last week, reveal there are
an estimated 332,000 problem drug users in the UK - almost one in 10 of
15- to 64-year-olds. The research also revealed that many drug dealers
believed the risk of arrest was low.

Drug experts expressed dismay last night at the seizure figures,
describing them as "absolutely startling", saying that smuggling drugs
into Britain was easier than at any time in the last 30 years and
questioning whether the agency needs a radical shake-up. The new
statistics were cited as an indictment of the Government's drug policy
and a further embarrassment for Gordon Brown's administration, which
already faces a public crisis of confidence over its handling of the
Northern Rock affair, HM Revenue & Customs' loss of 25 million people's
personal and banking details and apparent failures to honour the
Military Covenant.

Reducing the supply of drugs, preventing young people becoming users and
reducing drug-related crime are all cornerstones of Home Office policy.
Soca was announced by the Government in 2004 as an agency specifically
to spearhead investigation of serious crimes including organised drug
smuggling. With an annual budget of £4bn and 4,000 staff, it took over
drug investigations from Customs along with the roles of the National
Crime Squad, National Crime Intelligence Services and part of MI5's
remit in April 2006. But some law enforcement sources fear there is now
a "big hole" between Soca, HMRC and police forces in the UK's defences
against drug trafficking. The announcement of the agency's formation led
to uncertainty among Customs investigators and a change of emphasis
since Soca's formation has exacerbated the decline in seizures,
according to its critics.

One well-placed senior police officer told the IoS that there "was huge
discontent" in police forces about Soca's performance. "Soca is not
delivering the service delivered by the old regional crime squads and
NCIS." There are similar concerns among Customs officials. The IoS has
seen an internal Customs memo written by a senior operations manager for
border drugs detection staff which says: "A new departmental strategy is
being drawn up post-Soca. It is recognised that the transition to Soca
has had a negative impact on Intelligence/Investigation support to
Detection."

Customs is now said to be considering reforming its own drugs
intelligence department as "we need to make more and bigger seizures".
Some intelligence sources suggest that there is so much heroin coming
into the UK at the moment that importers are having trouble selling and
that some has even been re-exported. The result is burgeoning
availability of class A drugs on Britain's streets, highlighted in a
recent national survey by the DrugScope agency which showed street
prices for illegal drugs are at an all-time low and in some cases
dropping.

Trends uncovered by the survey indicate that the UK cocaine market is
expanding, with the drug as cheap as it has ever been at an average £43
a gram; 10 years ago it was £50 or more. "There is little if any
evidence that current efforts to tackle supply are impacting on
availability and price," said Martin Barnes, DrugScope's chief
executive. "Dealers are able to meet the demands of different users by
creating a two-tier market," with higher-quality cocaine being aimed at
wealthy users.

Professor Neil McKeganey, of the Centre for Policy Research and an
author of government research on the subject, argued it was hard to know
just how much class A drugs is coming into the country at any time or
what percentage is seized. But, he said: "In my estimation the UK drug
trade, which according to reports this week is worth some £8bn a year,
has the capability over the long term to undermine the UK's economic and
political stability.

"It is important to create a hostile environment for those who seek to
smuggle drugs into the UK. These figures suggest we are being less
successful than in the past in doing that. If the figures for seizures
are not verifiable and transparent to the public, they cease to be of
any use."

Drugs analyst Kathy Gyngell, from the Centre for Policy Studies and the
editor of a major 2006 report on drug addiction, said there was no doubt
the market, particularly for cocaine powder, is growing. Figures from
the Home Office's recent British Crime Survey showed the number of 16-
to 24-year-olds in England and Wales who admitted taking cocaine in the
previous year has almost doubled from 1998, up from 3.2 per cent to 6.1
per cent in 2006-07. The Chief Constable of Cleveland, Sean Price,
recently said the crack cocaine use is now at its highest ever level.
"This is the third time since I have been in the police service that
crack cocaine has emerged as the drug of choice," he said. "I think this
is probably the highest level of usage I have seen in those three
times." And the threat is no longer confined to the inner cities, he
said. "It is clear that there are very few parts of the UK that haven't
experienced some levels of crack cocaine abuse."

Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock, said plummeting seizure figures added to a
growing sense of disquiet about Soca's anti-drug performance. "My view
of Soca is, and has always been, that it is overcommitted. It is
something the Government took on without proper resources. It has become
unaccountable ... I think taxpayers and indeed Parliament are entitled
to know exactly what these people are doing and whether the policy is
right."

Brian Paddick, a former Scotland Yard assistant commissioner and now Lib
Dem candidate for Mayor of London, said: "The Government's drugs
strategy is failing and their attempts to rectify the situation are
ill-conceived. Despite a 20 per cent reduction in cannabis use, Labour
are proposing to re-classify cannabis from class C to class B. At the
same time there has been an increase in the use of the class A drug
cocaine among young people. 'Social' drug takers don't decide what type
of drug to take on the basis of what class it is in; they decide on the
basis of how dangerous it is and the effects it has. It is not
legislation but education that will reduce drug use. Young people in
particular need to be told the dangers of taking drugs, the physical
effects from doctors and the life-changing effects from recovering
addicts whose lives have been ruined by drugs."

Increasingly, drugs experts and spokesmen are alarmed over Soca's
selective approach to which major drug importation cases it takes on.
Its annual report last May emphasised non-UK seizures, producing a
startling figure of 73 tons of cocaine seizures. It did not claim sole
responsibility but "partnership" with international agencies. Soca
refuses to provide any detail about these offshore seizures. Some 14
tons of this amount had been seized by Royal Navy ships in the Atlantic
often working with international partners.

But neither Soca nor the Home Office will give any details of the
remaining 59 tons or even if it was heading to the UK. An MP seeking
more detail, was told: "It is important that Soca can continue to hide
or disguise its involvement in commodity seizures." But David Raynes, a
former senior Customs officer and member of the National Drugs
Prevention Alliance, is unconvinced. He said: "Smuggling drugs into
Britain in 2007 is more risk-free than at any time in 30 years."

Soca's chairman, former MI5 chief Sir Stephen Lander, insists the
agency's approach is "a marathon not a sprint" and that he has five
years to prove Soca's worth to ministers. A spokesman for Soca said:
"Concentrating only on seizures will not prevent drugs being available
in the UK in the long term, as suppliers will always seek to replace
losses. Soca is, with partners in the UK and globally, focusing on
taking out the source suppliers, not the middlemen or street dealers."

'It took just five minutes for someone to offer us drugs'

A virtually limitless supply of drugs of all sorts is available around
Camden Town in north London. As tourists and shoppers made their way
from the Underground station to the famous market, along the High
Street, it took no more than five minutes for a man and a woman to
approach us yesterday, offering rocks of crack cocaine for £10. 

Camden has the reputation of being the easiest place in London to buy
drugs - and, what is more, those buying know that, as our graphic shows,
different drugs are sold on neighbouring streets - a little like the
market itself, where clothes stalls are in one area, food stalls in
another, and household goods in a third. Selling drugs is a mature,
semi-formal business.

At lunchtime, with the market in full swing, the police were there in
heavy numbers. Dealers simply laid low when they spotted them, and then
were back seconds after they moved on, plying their trade on the busy
street, openly telling potential customers what it was they had to sell.
Nina Lakhani and Richard Osley

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