HM Customs and Excise : the prevention of drug smuggling : report / by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

  • Great Britain. National Audit Office.
Date:
1998
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: HM Customs and Excise : the prevention of drug smuggling : report / by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/48 (page 13)
    b) c) enforcing anti-smuggling controls at the United Kingdom frontier. They target passengers and freight arriving (or leaving) through ports and airports and the channel tunnel, and they monitor numerous airfields and the coastline for suspicious activity. They work in flexible, mobile teams based at strategic locations around the country. The headquarters Operations (Anti-Smuggling) Division is responsible for operational anti-smuggling policy and for providing assurance to the Board on anti-smuggling performance. Intelligence staff analyse and disseminate information on smuggling trends in general and identify indicators of smuggling activity. The National Intelligence Division formulates and disseminates intelligence policy and guidance to local units. It provides strategic threat assessments to inform the work of policy makers and of local intelligence units in the collections. Local intelligence units work alongside anti-smuggling staff and undertake threat analysis at operational level. Investigation staff focus on known or suspected smugglers, targeting individuals or organisations involved in drug trafficking and following up major seizures of drugs by anti-smuggling staff. They belong to the Department's National Investigation Service. Each region of the National Investigation Service is linked by a framework agreement to one or more collections, which specifies the nature and level of the service to be provided. National Investigation Service management, based in London, co-ordinate the activities of its eight geographical regions, and directly control a number of specialist drugs teams whose remit is not limited to a particular region.