New agency seizes £3 billion of cocaine

The Serious Organised Crime Agency has seized 73 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of £3 billion during its first year of operation, it has been revealed.

In its first annual report, Soca revealed that the cocaine seized represented a fifth of Europe’s estimated annual supply.

Soca also seized 1.5 tonnes of heroin, 4.4 million ecstasy tablets, 260 kilos of opium and a million doses of LSD over the past year.

The report also said that the agency had helped to prevent 35 murders and had also drawn up a list of more than 1,600 of the worst criminals in Britain.

Soca also revealed that three criminals had been recruited as 'supergrasses' to provide information. However, it is not known if they received softer sentences in exchange for turning 'Queen's Evidence'.

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: "In its first year Soca has made a real impact by seizing large quantities of class A drugs, making well over 1,000 arrests and preventing massive amounts of fraud - these are all fantastic achievements."

However, Martin Barnes, chief executive of DrugScope, said: "Soca has had some notable successes with regards to the disruption of Class A drug trafficking both into Europe and specifically into this country.

"However, the Soca report acknowledges that these disruptions are 'probably temporary' and that at this point it is too soon to expect to see evidence of the dislocation of criminal markets in the UK.

"Over time Soca will need to devise effective and transparent indicators to demonstrate how its activities are impacting on the harms caused to UK individuals and communities by drugs. There should be no let up in efforts to tackle the demand for drugs, through prevention, education and drug treatment."

Soca began operating last April after the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the National Crime Squad and other law enforcement agencies merged.

(KMcA/JM)