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 Unpublished figures demonstrate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

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 UKP10 a
gram since 2004 to UKP43. Ten years ago heroin was selling at UKP70 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 UKP4bn 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
UKP43 a gram; 10 years ago it was UKP50 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 UKP8bn
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 UKP10.

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.