Drugs agency focuses on smashing supply chain

The statistics appear to reflect the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency’s aim to focus on disrupting the channels used by the country’s biggest dealers.

That means stopping shipments from countries such as Colombia, as well as the production of home-grown drugs – such as the Chinese and Vietnamese-run cannabis factories in old tenement houses.

There were 30 illegal importation of drugs recorded in 2010-11, almost double the 17 the previous year and more than triple any of the three years prior to that.

Incidents of illegal cultivation of drugs rose to its highest in ten years to 964 – more than double the figure in 2006-7. At the same time, possession of drugs with intent to supply fell by a third to 6,144, with possession also down slightly to 26,960, its lowest level since 2001-2.

A spokesman for the SCDEA said: “Over recent years we have shifted the priorities of the SCDEA away from a narrow focus on the quantities of hard drugs seized towards one based on disrupting the supply of drugs bound for our shores closer to their point of origin.

“That has a twin benefit for the people of Scotland. First, it takes high-purity drugs out of the supply chain and, second, it badly disrupts the capital, cash flow and credibility of the gangs involved in the illegal drugs business, which makes it harder for them to do deals in the future.

“That approach has seen some really notable successes.”