NCA ACTS ON COVERT DRUG ACTIVITIES

Corrective action had been taken after the discovery that a senior National
Crime Authority officer had for years been sanctioning illegal drug
activity without authority, a Victoria Police spokesman said yesterday.

The statement followed a report in The Age yesterday that the NCA's
Melbourne manager of investigations, William Laing, did not have the power
to sign certificates that allowed two informers to break the law on behalf
of investigators.

A Melbourne court heard that six years ago Mr Laing was given a Victoria
Police ranking lower than that which was legally required for him to sign
section 51 certificates.

Such certificates authorised NCA informers or agents to "carry out all
inquiries and obtain all necessary evidence", which indicated offences
under the Victoria Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act.

When then Victorian Assistant Commissioner (Crime) Neil O'Loughlin swore in
Mr Laing as a Special Constable in 1995, he should have been given the rank
of not less than a Senior Sergeant.

When this error was revealed at a recent County Court trial, barristers
Peter Faris, QC, and Sean Grant, for a man charged with heroin trafficking,
argued that the alleged drug transactions involved "illegal conduct by
(NCA) police operatives, informers and agents".

Prosecutor Mark Rochford conceded that Mr Laing was not authorised and that
it had been "stuffed up", but he argued that no law had been broken because
the informers did not believe they were committing a crime.

A Victoria Police spokesman told The Ageyesterday that police and the NCA
had previously tackled the issue so that "the same situation does not occur
again".

The spokesman said the "procedures have been addressed and reviewed" and
new procedures put in place.

No future cases would be affected, he said, while on Wednesday a
spokeswoman for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions said it
would check if the certificates' issue affected forthcoming trials.

The NCA would not comment.