STRATHCLYDE DRUG SQUAD 'DISBANDED' AFTER INQUIRY

Officer Suspended Amid Allegations Of Drug Possession And Gross Misconduct

A DRUGS squad detective has been suspended and the rest of the team is
reported to have been disbanded after an internal investigation was
triggered by an officer who tried to save himself the price of a first
class stamp.

Strathclyde police refused yesterday to confirm or deny reports that other
officers in the squad have been returned to uniform duties after
allegations of drug possession and gross misconduct by officers.

Evidence has emerged that at least one officer may have used his desk to
store drugs taken from dealers.

The allegations prompted a call yesterday for an external investigation of
the force.

The internal investigation began when postal workers spotted a forged 26
pence stamp on a business envelope and reported it to police, who
discovered a tax return sent by a detective from the crime action team in
Glasgow.

Officers mounted a covert surveillance operation and uncovered counterfeit
stamps and quantities of Class A drugs, including heroin, which were
allegedly found hidden in desks.

At least one officer may face criminal charges after a report is sent to
the procurator-fiscal in Glasgow.

Yesterday police refused to confirm or deny the allegations. But a police
source told the Sunday Mail: "More than 20 officers, including two
detective constables, have been put back in uniform and sent out on the
beat. The entire crime action team has been closed down as a result of what
was found during the course of the investigation."

The action is the latest in a series of humiliations for Strathclyde's
drugs squad, whose officers were already under investigation by the
procurator-fiscal over perjury allegations. In January, seven officers,
including three inspectors, were suspended after a judge said that they
lied to conceal violence against a convicted drugs offender in Glasgow.

Lord Marnoch awarded Gerald Rae, 39, of Cartside Street, Glasgow, UKP
33,000 when he sued Strathclyde police over claims that officers assaulted
him and planted drugs during a raid at his home in 1990.

In March of this year, Peter Cross, 62, a former member of a children's
panel, told The Scotsman that he believed officers removed drugs from a bag
he saw thrown from a flat during a 1990 raid on a convicted dealer, William
Dennison.

At Mr Rae's trial, his defence claimed that drugs squad officers then
planted the same drugs at his client's home.

A third man, also charged with possessing drugs after a 1990 raid by many
of the same officers, was cleared in 1991 when his eight-year-old daughter
said she saw the drugs being planted by officers. John Paul Muir was
cleared in 1991 after Natalie, then aged eight, said that an officer
removed something from a bag and put it under floorboards.

At the time of this trial, Detective Inspector John Pollock, who led
several raids in 1990, was transferred to uniform duties without
explanation. The Crown Office later refused to open an inquiry into
officers' behaviour.

Roseanna Cunningham, Scottish National Party spokeswoman on home affairs,
called yesterday for an external investigation of the force, Scotland's
biggest. She said: "This brings up the whole issue of who polices the
police. There is a danger that in a force the size of Strathclyde there are
little petty kingdoms formed which are immune to scrutiny."

Ms Cunningham said she would have expected the allegations to be
investigated outwith the force.

David McLetchie, a lawyer and a senior Tory spokesman, said that offending
officers should be rooted out to safeguard the force's reputation and to
restore public confidence.

The office of Henry McLeish, the Scottish home affairs minister, refused to
comment on the allegations, describing them as an operational matter for
Strathclyde police.

The news overshadowed an announcement that the force, under the auspices of
the Spotlight anti-crime initiative, arrested 35 people for drugs offences
during a weapons crack down on Friday night.

It is believed that a Spotlight team is being formed to replace the squad
but it will not be operational until September.

Strathclyde police confirmed that an officer had been suspended after an
investigation into alleged theft.