Spy jets fighting drug war
By Adrian Addison and James Franklin
TOP-SECRET spy planes are spearheading a new high-tech war against drug barons smuggling cocaine worth millions of pounds into Britain.
High above the Caribbean, pilots flying aircraft equipped with sophisticated detection gear are engaged in a battle of wits with drug-boat captains trying to evade them on the seas below.
The air war is one of British Customs' most closely-guarded secrets, and its existence has only just been revealed.
Two US-donated aircraft manned by British-trained pilots patrol the sea lanes from Venezuela to the eastern Caribbean.
The planes guide British-trained authorities to the cocaine boats. A small craft can be crammed with a ton of white powder worth GBP8million.
The covert airborne offensive is only one part of the British response to attempts by cocaine cartels to outwit law-enforcement agencies after a successful clampdown on drugs gangs operating out of Jamaica.
New equipment and techniques have slashed the number of Jamaican drug "mules" - couriers who risk their lives flying into the UK after swallowing large amounts of cocaine in bags.
A total of 216 suspects - their bellies stuffed with cocaine - tried to make their way to Britain from Jamaica last year. Detection rates on flights from the island have almost trebled and the number of "swallowers" arrested at UK airports has dropped 75 per cent.
In a bid to keep up the pressure on the drug gangs, Customs officers are training law-enforcement agencies across the Caribbean, often at great personal risk.
Islands in the training programme include Antigua, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia and Barbados.
Any suspicious passenger at Barbados airport is checked with a machine which can pick up the most minute trace of cocaine. An X-ray will detect if they have swallowed drugs.
A three-part special investigation into the drug mules begins tonight on the Six O'Clock News on BBC1.
October 14, 2003 | Express, The/The Express on Sunday. Author/Byline: Adrian Addison and James Franklin
