CIVIL COURTS TO SEIZE CASH FROM SCOTS DRUG BARONS

A CRACKDOWN on drug barons will be pioneered in Scotland with the creation
of the UK's first drugs enforcement agency and a programme of asset
confiscations in the civil courts.

Donald Dewar, the Scottish secretary, declared war on dealers yesterday
when he also announced 200 extra police to fight the drugs trade and UKP5m
more to help the victims.

The government believes its new hardline strategy will be a vote winner at
the Scottish parliament elections in May. Fighting the drug barons will be
a cornerstone of Labour's manifesto.

Last night, there were already signs of dissent from opposition politicians
worried at the proposal to use the civil courts to seize the assets -
houses, cars, offshore properties and bank accounts - of suspected drug
dealers. Civil courts require a lower standard of proof - the balance of
probabilities - than the criminal courts.

Jim Wallace, leader of the Liberal Democrats, welcomed most of Dewar's
proposals but not the asset seizing measures. "His suggestion that
individual assets may be confiscated on uncorroborated hearsay evidence as
can happen in civil cases strikes at some basic principles of Scottish
justice."

For the past 10 years, asset seizing powers have been available to pursue
convicted dealers but the totals seized have been meagre. While the drug
trade in Scotland is believed to generate hundreds of millions of pounds,
last year the crown seized just UKP455,000.

Dewar told party activists in Dunblane yesterday: "The drug dealer must be
hit in the pocket. The power to confiscate is on the statute book but the
results have been a disappointment. We want to see the number of
confiscation orders increase. We must look with real urgency at proposals
to give new powers to the courts to order the confiscation of criminal
assets in civil proceedings.

"The advantage: the court can decide on the balance of probability that the
assets in question are the proceeds of drug trafficking. The aim: to do
everything we can, in government and in communities, to ensure that
criminals do not profit from the misery which their crimes inflict on others."

But one legal expert said: "Not many judges will feel at ease with these
draconian powers." And Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National
party, warned Dewar not to use the issue for party political advantage. "He
seems to be moving away from cross-party consensus on the issue."

Annabel Goldie, deputy Scottish Tory leader, said: "What is needed is a
concerted integrated policy and that, I feel, is still lacking here."

However, Dewar's plans found favour with Gaille McCann, a Glasgow Labour
councillor who is at the forefront of the Mothers Against Drugs battle in
Easterhouse. She said: "We have a massive heroin problem on our doorstep
with younger and younger people becoming users. When you grow up in
families where drug abuse and drug dealing is the norm, it leads to a
situation where drugs are becoming socially acceptable.

"We have a high concentration of drug dealers living in my area and they
need to be given a swift hard lesson. We need to send them a message."