DRUG DEALERS CASH IN AT CONTINENTAL 'SUPERMARKETS'

DRUG dealers are abandoning their traditional suppliers to shop at giant
drugs "supermarkets" on the Continent, according to Customs officers.

The European suppliers are even copying supermarket tactics by offering
discount prices on certain drugs in an attempt to win custom and loyalty.
Police believe that there are 12 drugs supermarkets operating in Belgium and
Holland selling drugs with a street value of millions of pounds to British
criminals each year. The type of outlet has transformed the way drugs are
brought into the country.

Mike Newsom, the head of Customs and Excise Drug Operations, said: "Dealers
traditionally imported one drug at a time because of the way the market
operated. They had to know the right contacts. It was a less diverse,
specialised, market. But now it's a bigger challenge. A whole range of drugs
are being imported in these cocktail loads. There is also a decided approach
to marketing. Sometimes a British trafficker might get a particularly good
deal on a drug that the European dealer is keen to push.

"Heroin and cocaine are sometimes underpriced as loss leaders to increase
the market for drugs." Many British drug dealers disguise the visits to the
supermarkets as "booze cruise" trips. They bring back large quantities of
alcohol and cigarettes in small vans with illegal drugs, according to
Customs and Excise officials.

Customs is presented with an almost impossible task of catching the
villains. They have to check more than 15,000 lorries, 800 coaches and 5,000
private cars - all carrying more than 50,000 people - every day. The Dutch
Ministry of Justice, Belgian Police and British Customs and police work with
each other to tackle the problem, but the supermarkets are constantly moved.
They are usually housed in large, disused warehouses, former farms and
derelict factories.

Each supermarket is thought to make at least one large sale a week and keep
a stock of up to pounds 200 million in street value. The combined turnover
of the new method of distribution is estimated to be pounds 4.5 billion. Few
British dealers see the supermarkets and Customs officers say that they
usually place an order by telephone and collect the goods from a safe house.

One Customs officer said: "The exchange is often done in a lay-by or a
motorway service station. But if you ask for a 'home delivery' you'll pay
extra - perhaps up to pounds 500,000."