DRUG SQUADS 'HIKING UP VALUE OF HAULS'

POLICE drug squads are exaggerating the value of drugs they seize in order
to compete for a bigger share of government funding, legal sources claimed
yesterday.

The so-called "street value" attached to some hauls are often several times
the real price at which they are being traded, they allege. Recent
individual hauls have been attributed values of UKP 25m for cocaine, UKP
800,000 for cannabis, and UKP 3m for ecstasy.

Senior lawyers, and a former drugs squad officer, have told The Herald that
the values of consignments are often based on unrealistic or out-of-date
assumptions about the retail price. They are exaggerated either as PR hype
or to enhance funding from the Scottish Executive for the war against drugs.

A former drugs squad officer admits talking up the values of seizures, and
says pressure has since grown because of the performance-related nature of
funding awarded to police forces and the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency.

The Scottish Executive denies funding is performance-related, and says its
targets for the agency are based on quantities of drugs seized which have
increased dramatically rather than value.

However, recent court cases give some indication as to how the valuations
accorded to these quantities compare with reality.

One of the biggest ecstasy trials in Scotland in recent times against two
Scots, two Dutchmen and a Belgian finished recently in the High Court with
acquittals all round, apart from one accused, Gregg Thomson, who had
pleaded guilty at the outset. He was imprisoned for a year, backdated.

At the heart of the case was a haul of 600,000 tablets on which the Crown
had put a street value of UKP 3m, or UKP 5 a tablet, when these are selling
in pubs and clubs for 50p to UKP 2.

Gordon Thomson, who retired five years ago as a detective inspector with
Grampian Police Drugs Squad, and now works through the National Expert
Witness Service, said: "There are not as many multi-millionaire drug
dealers as you would believe from hearing these new figures. Drug prices
have dropped rapidly over the past two years.

"From UKP 20 each for ecstasy in 1999, you can now get a pack of 100 for
UKP 100 to UKP 200. Until two or three years ago manufacture was mostly
European-based. Now a lot of the pre-cursor chemicals are being made in the
Far East. They are coming from China. It is cheaper. "There has always been
pressure on the drug squad chiefs to come up with weird and wonderful
calculations as to the value of drugs. I may have talked up the value of
seizures in the past but not to the extent that goes on now. It is
performance-related. The chief constables want it to be as high as possible."

According to a senior legal source, inflated valuations can lead to
injustices, with the courts handing down stiffer sentences. He said: "I
think there is a performance-related element. If they can say this is the
biggest drugs haul since whenever, the government is bound to look more
kindly on them. It is not uncommon for the police to say ecstasy is UKP 10
a tablet, but my understanding is that it is UKP 1 or even 50p. "If they
find a kilo of cocaine, the person they have collared may have bought it
for UKP 3000 and expects to be making UKP 6000 profit. But the police will
say this was to be sold in half-gram deals at UKP 25, which brings it up to
UKP 50,000. It makes a huge difference to sentencing. It can double your
sentence. The Crown can also use it as a plea-bargaining counter."

James Orr, director of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency, said on behalf
of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland: "When a potential
street value of illicit drugs is required for a trial, this evidence is
usually given by an expert police witness, from the relevant police force,
who has a proven and detailed knowledge of the illicit drugs trade."