This was the second visit from our guest speaker, Brian Topping, who is a retired customs officer and had more stories and information about his career.
He told us about the many roles and responsibilities of customs officers, carried out every day. These are often connected with other authorities, who give customs officers the power to act on their behalf and gave two examples. The officers would deal with importation of plants and animals., the remit of Defra - Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and Guns and Ammunition – the responsibility of the Home Office. We are probably more familiar with the customs officers working alongside Police, Border Force, Inland Revenue and National Crime Agency counterparts.
Brian gave us a brief history of Customs and Excise. The duties of collecting taxes and duties date back to Roman times, or even before - Saint Matthew the Evangelist is considered the patron saint of bankers, accountants and customs officers. The first mention of taxes and duties in our country date from 743CE, when a tax was imposed on grain entering from abroad. The first Coastguard service monitored ships and vessels entering our waters, and Brian mentioned that the sea was often used instead of roads by traders moving their goods around Britain.
The powers of customs officers, in terms of arrest, searching and seizing property were far stronger than those of the police but, strangely, customs officers were not allowed to enter and search premises during the hours of darkness unless accompanied by a police officer. Brian recounted an incident where the search of a house in London was needed one night. He spoke with a police inspector, who assigned officers to assist. No keys for the address were found on the person Brian had arrested, but the inspector assured him that a ‘master key’ for all properties was kept at the station. One of the officers opened a locker which contained a 13lb sledgehammer which had a label attached, with the words ‘master key’.
He went on to tell us about his main role in customs as his career developed – dealing with drug smuggling. He started with an image which featured Asia’s ‘Golden Crescent’ and ‘Golden Triangle’ which, between them, produce 90% of all the heroin in the world. There are two groups of people who carry out the smuggling of drugs from one country, or continent, to another; known as ‘Mules’ and ‘Minders’. The only job of the mules is to get the drugs they carry through customs. The mules have to look like, and blend in, with other travellers, but Brian mentioned that they are often detected due to their looking nervous or ill. The minders will travel on the same flights as the mules to make sure the drugs get through, and out of the airport, where the plane lands.
The mules are often carrying drugs into the country under duress, and this will be exploited by criminal gangs. A woman, very heavily pregnant, was stopped and found to be in possession of a large amount of drugs. It turned out that the reason for this was her boyfriend or partner owed a large amount of money to one of these gangs, and getting the woman to smuggle the drugs in was ‘payment’ of the debt.
Brian had mixed fortunes when examining the contents of passengers’ luggage. On one occasion, when a suitcase was opened, there was a horrible smell. The case had a false bottom, and beneath it was around seven kilogrammes of vegetable matter, which tested positive for cannabis. The passenger was immediately cooperative and admitted knowledge of the contents. These had to be tested again, more thoroughly, and it was found that they consisted of a mixture of vegetable matter and cow dung. The passenger was still convicted of attempting to bring it into Britain. He would have smoked the ‘drugs’ himself, and probably also have shared it with friends.
Drugs can be, and are, smuggled in by a number of methods, including on ships landing in the United Kingdom. Brian showed a picture of a vessel arriving at Felixstowe from Holland, where twenty million pounds worth of cocaine was found hidden within its stated cargo of frozen meat. Another batch of cocaine was found within pallets of timber, again brought it by sea – Brian said that the pallets would each have contained many hundreds of pieces of wood. The seizure of the drug came about after a customs officer had noticed errors, or similar problems, with the paperwork about the importation.
Drug smuggling gangs use their knowledge of human behaviour to successfully get drugs through ports of entry. This was illustrated by a large-scale seizure of drugs on one of the entry points from Mexico into the USA. The drugs were on lorry loads of carrots being imported and indeed the lorries had layers of carrots at the top – the smugglers thinking that where and when the attempt would be made, that customs staff would be unlikely to thoroughly check the whole cargo.
Brian related a fairly recent smuggling attempt that probably none of the audience would have thought about. He had a slide of a submarine which had been built by a drug cartel in South America, which sailed up the Amazon river and across the Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to smuggle three tons of cocaine into Spain. The bad news is that Europe is currently being swamped by cocaine, and that Britain is the second largest cocaine user in the world.
Back to airports, Brian mentioned that bag handlers and other corrupt staff, particularly those employed by airlines, have been involved in drug smuggling. An example is diverting bags they know contain drugs away from customs areas, and even taking them out of the airport. But on a more positive note, the staff at airports are trained to be aware of suspicious behaviour and what to do if they spot it.
We had to concentrate to follow another account of how drugs can be smuggled in through airports which is known as the ‘switch bag routine’. Two people obtain identical suitcases, and travel separately out of the UK. One goes to Karachi and buys drugs, and the other flies to Paris. The Karachi traveller buys a ticket back to London, via Paris. The Paris traveller obtains a ticket for the same plane that takes the Karachi passenger back to London. The Paris traveller, on landing in London, picks up the bag from Karachi and takes it into customs. If he or she is stopped, they will say that they have picked up an identical suitcase to theirs – which must be still on the carousel. It will, or should be, because the Karachi passenger will have left the airport without it. Brian assured us that whenever this happens, an established and reliable procedure will start to arrest both offenders.
Nearing the end of his presentation, Brian mentioned colleagues both in the UK and abroad that contribute to the successes of our customs officers. Often, a plan to stop a particular gang, or smuggling attempt can involve counterparts in a number of countries at the same time. And there was a special mention of the four-legged agents who can detect drugs, firearms, explosives and numerous other things that cause harm to others, and enjoy themselves while doing it, usually for eight years before they retire.
Our members enjoyed the second visit and presentation from Brian and they showed this with well deserved applause.
Colin Sanson