UP IN SMOKE: DRUGS SLIP BY POLICE

SOUTH Australian Police Commissioner Mal Hyde admitted yesterday that
4kg of drugs may have slipped by police in the bungled Cheech and
Chong Affair, in which two federal Labor MPs were wrongly accused of
cannabis smuggling.

However, he refused to apologise over his officers' handling of the
case, inferred federal police were at fault and rejected as paranoid
accusations of malice or political motivation.

He blamed the mix-up on an "unfortunate twist of fate" caused because
backbencher David Cox could have had a bag similar to one belonging to
the drug suspects.

"It's not Keystone Kops . . . it's an unfortunate incident," Mr Hyde
said.

Because of information from South Australian officers, Mr Cox and a
fellow South Australian, frontbencher Martyn Evans, were marched off
an aircraft by federal police in Canberra on Sunday night, questioned
and their carry-on luggage searched.

Mr Evans said last night that while there was little point in pursuing
an apology, the operation had been "bungled from go to whoa".

"They let the real couriers get through," he said. "The real couriers
must be laughing themselves stupid."

The incident has been dubbed the Cheech and Chong Affair in Canberra
and Adelaide political circles (after the stars of the cult 1970s
marijuana movie Up In Smoke).

But Mr Hyde said: "We took reasonable steps to make sure the
information was reliable and properly acted on by the Australian
Federal Police. Now how they dealt with it, that's a question for them."

Mr Hyde said that after receiving anonymous information that 4kg of
cannabis would be smuggled on the flight, police observed luggage
being checked in by two suspects at Adelaide Airport.

An officer and sniffer dog failed to detect any drugs in the
checked-in baggage area, but the name Cox was identified on a bag
similar to one checked in by the suspects.

A hand-luggage scanner showed a "suspicious image" in the two carry-on
bags presented by the two suspects, but by the time a response team
had been called they had boarded the aircraft.

Because the airline had established that a Mr Cox was travelling with
a Mr Evans, federal police were informed the two suspects "may be
travelling under the names of Cox and Evans".

When asked yesterday whether the suspects had been wearing suits and
travelling in business class, Mr Hyde said the descriptions supplied
to Canberra police did not resemble Mr Cox or Mr Evans.