CUSTOMS BOOST DRUG WAR

SYDNEY: Man's best friend is still top dog in the war against drug
importers despite the opening of a million-dollar high-technology Customs
search centre in Sydney yesterday.

The 3700sq m centre houses the most sophisticated drug-detection technology
available.

Opened by Justice Minister Amanda Vanstone as part of a $34 million Federal
Government upgrading of the Australian Customs Service, the centre is
equipped with the latest in x-ray and ionscan or particle-analysing equipment.

It will also act as monitoring headquarters for closed circuit camera
surveillance of all Sydney wharves.

But the single most important tools in unearthing banned drugs crossing
Australian borders are still "the dogs", according to the service's
national director, Les Johns.

"We've got some very good technology here," he said during a tour of the
facility in Sydney's inner-west. "We've invested strongly in the ionscan
and x-ray equipment . . . and also a 'buster' that can tell us the
dimensions of a [shipping] container and whether there's a false cavity
inside.

"But we've also spent heavily in drug-detector dogs . . . and their results
are very, very sound."

About 412,000 containers arrived in Sydney last year all of them at least
risk-assessed by Customs officers.

However, the new centre will allow the number actually searched to increase
from 40 a month to about 200 a month and eventually 300.

As well as scrutinising suspect cargo on the premises, 40 trained personnel
can be deployed anywhere in NSW at any time. The $500,000 package x-ray
machines and $40,000 ionscanners are also mobile, the latter recently used
to detect a record $50 million haul of cocaine at Coffs Harbour.

Mr Jones said some 50 monitors at the facility would eventually give a
bird's-eye view of Sydney's waterfront.

"[Hidden] cameras give us the capability of building an electronic cage
around a container so we don't have to have someone there watching it," he
said.

"As soon as someone goes near it the control room alarm will ring and we
can immediately investigate what's happening and send a response team."

The new facility would form a crucial plank in the Government's Tough on
Drugs strategy, Senator Vanstone said. "Sydney is recognised as being the
primary market for narcotics in Australia and this new search facility
should assist in combating this illegal and potentially deadly
international trade."