IN A MAJOR STING CUSTOMS MEN LET DRUGS WORTH (UKP)250,000 INTO BRITAIN.
THEN IT ALL WENT WRONG.... AND NOW THE HEROIN IS ON OUR STREETS.

Heroin worth UKP250,000 disappeared after undercover Customs officers
handed over the drugs to informers, The Express has discovered. Now the
lethal haul is believed to have been sold on Britain's streets. Amateurish
mistakes by two separate Customs teams led to officers losing track of
three kilos of the drug. The blunders, in Leeds and Glasgow, are being
investigated and Customs insiders admit they are deeply embarrassed by it
all. An internal inquiry is also going on into the use of informants who
participate in drug smuggling operations. This follows the collapse of
four high-profile court cases in the last two years.

In almost identical cases, Customs teams in the two cities were given
information by grasses about separate heroin smuggling operations from
Pakistan. Under careful surveillance by Pakistan and British authorities
as well as Customs, the informers were allowed to collect two consignments
of heroin, worth UKP3.5m, in Pakistan. The drugs were then brought into
the country by undercover officers.

The first consignment of 20kg was destined for Leeds in July last year.
The second was taken to Glasgow in November.

To catch the head traffickers behind the importing of both consignments,
the informers arranged for "middlemen" in Leeds and Glasgow to collect a
sample of the heroin. This is standard business procedure used by drug
dealers. After trailing the middlemen, the officers carry out the "sting" -
arresting the leader as the sample is handed over to him for analysis. The
smugglers are then arrested and the drugs recovered.

Due to surveillance mistakes, both middlemen escaped with one-and-a-half
kilo samples of heroin. Neither have been recovered. Custom officials
have never admitted the loss of the drugs until The Express learned of the
debacle. It is thought that the informers who were paid UKP35,000 for the
jobs, then tipped off both Pakistani gangs that were being trailed. The
heroin - 70 per cent pure - may have been sold to children as young as 12
in Glasgow and Leeds for as little as UKP2 a wrap.

Shaukat Ali, the middleman in the Glasgow case, was arrested after
disappearing with the sample and has since been jailed for five years.
Although there were other arrests in both cases Ali, from Oldham, is the
only trafficker to be convicted.

One Customs insider said: "It is very embarrassing that three kilos of
heroin have disappeared. A lot of questions are being asked. The whole
issue of participating informers is a very sensitive one. "In both these
cases, it was human error that the drugs went missing. "Unfortunately,
incidents such as this do happen and that is the risk we take when we deal
with informants who, by their nature are not altogether trustworthy.
"Officers on cases such as these work under awfully difficult conditions
and have to make split-second decisions. Heroin dealers are dangerous,
sophisticated and professional criminals. "It only takes one traffic light
to turn to red and the whole operation is blown."

The two incidents have raised serious questions about dealings with
informants, especially after a string of collapsed court cases led to known
criminals walking free.

Customs pay up to UKP1,000 cash per kilo of heroin to the criminal sources
who provide information and work for them. In return, the informants are
often provided with immunity from the law and protection. An increasing
number of dealers are now turning on their colleagues to profit from the
arrangement. Customs rely heavily on their information to seize drugs.

A report by the National Audit Office last week found that Customs had
seized nearly double their target amount of drugs in the last 12 months.
Drugs worth UKP3.3 billion were discovered entering Britain and officers
smashed 103 smuggling operations - way above their target figures of UKP1.7
billion seized drugs and 108 dismantled organisations. The vast majority
of these successes came after information was provided by informers. There
have been problems with the arrangement, though. One insider said:
"Informers are our biggest risk because once they know how the system works
they come to the conclusion that it's money for old rope." An official
Customs spokesman said: "The movement of drugs m one country to another
using participating informants to identify and arrest traffickers is a
proven method successfully used by us. "This method has been tested
through the courts on a number of occasions. Disquiet has been expressed
in respect of some recent cases. We are reviewing all aspects of them."
The official added: "We are aware that on two occasions samples of heroin
regrettably have got onto the streets. This was due to operational
difficulties and these cases are being thoroughly investigated." A new
drugs scandal emerged yesterday with the revelation that the Ministry of
Defence has launched an investigation into how a haul of cannabis came to
be found aboard a destroyer. A "rigorous" inquiry was said to be going on
over the discovery on a Royal Navy vessel. The MoD confirmed the
investigation on HMS Newcastle "following a drugs related incident." The
probe comes after a report that a two-kilo haul of cannabis with a street
value of UKP4,000 was recovered from the Type 42 destroyer. "A naval
investigation team is conducting an investigation into HMS Newcastle," said
an MoD spokesman. "The investigation is ongoing and could take a matter of
days rather than hours."

The ship was believed to be returning from a six-month tour of duty in the
West Indies when the haul was discovered. It is stood to have been helping
the Americans with anti-drug smuggling exercises in the Caribbean. Navy
detectives have taken fingerprints from all the crew, including the
captain. The destroyer has now returned to Portsmouth.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)