Cut in port police linked to surge in tobacco smuggling by Ulster thugs

SCOTLAND's west coast has become a smuggling hot spot after police cover for ports was significantly reduced last year.

• Picture: PA

New figures obtained by The Scotsman from the tobacco industry have revealed there was a massive increase of illegal cigarettes coming in through Dumfries and Galloway.

Sources within the tobacco industry and police believe former paramilitary groups from Northern Ireland are increasingly using ports like Stranraer to smuggle in counterfeit of "cheap white" cigarettes – made abroad below British standards – on to the UK mainland.

Recent checks on packets by the tobacco industry revealed 30.8 per cent in Scotland were illegal products, up 10.5 percentage points from 2009. The worst area on the UK mainland was the north of England, where 42.8 per cent were illegal, up 23.5.

The rate dropped dramatically the further south the tests were carried out, to just 2 per cent in the south-east.

The problem of smuggling is costing the Exchequer millions of pounds in lost revenue and means potentially dangerous products are circulating in the UK. It also undermines the strategy of increasing tobacco prices to discourage use.

Police in Dumfries and Galloway have seen their numbers drop from 48 to 38 in the last year because Scottish Government funding was switched to providing more cover at airports following recommendations in a report by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos).

The police officers have to cover 108 small ports, and Stranraer and Cairnryan on a coastline stretch of 350 miles.

But the Acpos recommendation was made because of the end of terrorist activities in Northern Ireland.

However, at the time justice secretary Kenny MacAskill was warned by Scotland former top policeman, Graeme Pearson, the former head of Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) that this would be a mistake. He told The Scotsman in September last year that the so-called peace dividend only meant that the problem had changed, not gone away and that former paramilitaries were now specialising in crime.

Last night, he said: "The problem is that the ports in Dumfries and Galloway are seen as internal borders, so do not attract the same support as ports like Dover and Hull or even Rosyth.

"But they are an easy point of access for former paramilitaries, who are thugs. Many were already involved with organised crime and saw terrorism as a sort of hobby to go alongside their more profitable activities".

Yesterday, Labour Dumfries and Galloway MP Russell Brown accused Mr MacAskill of failing to heed the warnings.

He added:

"A number of experienced police officers have been taken out of the ports unit and those who want to smuggle goods into the UK, or flood our streets with illegal drugs, will be determined to continue to exploit that weakness brought about as a consequence of the SNP's police cuts".

But a Scottish Government spokeswoman said

: "The Scottish Government is continuing to invest record levels in policing at ports across Scotland, including Dumfries and Galloway.

"The Scottish Government provides additional funding to police for aspects of ports policing. Dumfries and Galloway benefits directly from this funding, as it has from the funding for additional officers."

But one senior figure in the tobacco industry warned that the problem would have to be sorted out before a display ban starts to be rolled out next year in Scotland.

There are fears that it will become even more difficult to distinguish between fake and genuine cigarettes.