SERIOUS CRIMES UNIT DISBANDED JOHN McCANN

STRATHCLYDE'S fight against drugs and organised crime has suffered a
serious setback with the collapse of a serious crimes unit in the East End
of Glasgow.

It emerged yesterday that the unit at Glasgow's E division headquarters at
London Road has been "removed" from special duties after a constable was
found to be in possession of Class A drugs and forged stamps.

The dispersal of up to 20 officers to other duties has struck at the heart
of the division's capacity to deal with organised crime, including
housebreaking and car theft, as modern policing depends on meticulous
intelligence gathering, a major part of the unit's responsibility.

The unit was disbanded after an investigation, launched a month ago when
the now-suspended officer used a forged postage stamp to post a tax return.
Postal officers alerted police who in turn challenged the constable and a
search uncovered a quantity of drugs, believed to have been stored in a
desk.

While a general report on the investigation into the activities of the unit
has been submitted to the procurator-fiscal, the unnamed officer is
expected to be the subject of an individual report.

A force spokesman said yesterday: "There is a rigorous logging system for
all evidence and that does not appear to have been followed in this case."

Sources believe that at least one criminal prosecution will follow the
internal investigation and that one other individual may be charged. but
that most of the unit's officers will be cleared and reinstated.

An officer close to the force's drug squad at Pitt Street in the city
centre emphasised that full-time drug squad officers were not involved in
the investigation.

He said: "The officers in question worked with them on occasion, but so do
a lot of cops."

In a separate case, seven drugs squad officers remain under investigation
by the procurator-fiscal after they were suspended in January when a
convicted drugs offender, Gerald Rae, 32, successfully sued over
allegations that he was attacked during a raid on his home.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)