of cat and mouse with drugs importers From Admiralty House Park to Needle Park off Court Street, Bermuda's drugs scourge is obvious. But how deep does the problem go. In the first in a six-part series, Matthew Taylor talks to Customs Officer Sean Pitcher, who is on the front lines of stopping drug importers.

Tomorrow: Health Minister Nelson Bascome on Government's plans to end drug abuse.

A little intelligence goes a long way, says Principal Customs Officer Sean Pitcher as his small band of men battle to stem the flow of drugs into the Island.

Cruise ships are a massive threat and Mr. Pitcher admits it is a problem searching for drugs on vessels which can have 11 decks and well over 1,000 people on board.

He says: "Bermuda is almost unique. It's very rare around the world where you have a ship arrive on Monday and stay until Thursday.

"Crew and passengers can get off any time over that period -- at some time smugglers are going to be able to move drugs.

"We depend on our intelligence and then target people, there's no way we can get on board and just rummage the ship -- otherwise we would start Monday and still be going on Friday.'' On-board snitches play a key role and Mr. Pitcher cites the recent Crime Stoppers initiative as leading to some sizeable busts.

"Last summer (1999) we introduced the Crime Stoppers programme and we've already had five arrests and seized $3 million worth of drugs just from that.'' But in the tight-knit world of cruise ships, informers are less than popular.

"Ship workers live in small communities,'' Mr. Pitcher explains. "In one case a guy was roughed up because he was seen talking with one of the Customs officers.

"But he was actually flirting with her. In the end it backfired on them.

"He took the attitude that if he was going to be roughed up he might as well give some information and we found drugs.

"However, the officer still didn't go out on a date with him.'' But for every arrest there are plenty more willing to risk running drugs.

"The prices are so high here and there's so much money to be made -- that's our biggest problem,'' Mr. Pitcher admits. "The cruise ships' workers are basically low paid making $500 a month so they are going to be enticed if someone offers them $2,000 to $3,000 to run a package.

"Many have been coming here for years. They get approached coldly on the streets of New York.

"Somebody's hanging round and see a West Indian or South American crew member and they ask, `would you like to make some money?' On the front lines of Bermuda's drugs war "Sometimes the runners are recruited by organisers on board. People also approach them in Bermuda.

"So we've built up good relations with the cruise ships and have enlisted their cooperation in the war on drugs. During the summer we started to get information from crews.

"We've even had ships themselves make a seizure -- a couple of years ago they saw a crew member who was waddling because he had so much marijuana on him he couldn't walk properly. He had tight pants with marijuana taped around him. He was carrying two kilos.

"Cruise lines do random searches on the way down. They target people acting suspiciously. They check belongings on board.

"If they don't have X-Ray equipment, for instance to check a radio which they think might contain drugs, they secure it and we'll do a search here.'' "Cruise ship bosses report suspicious activity. We have intelligence files and databases on who crew members associate with.'' Low paid cruise workers with big wads of cash always attract suspicion.

"You can find out from the cruise ships how much guys make,'' Mr. Pitcher says. "If a guy is coming to the end of his ten-month contract, you can expect him to have $10,000 from his tips. But if all of a sudden he's coming off with a Rolex or he's sending a lot of money home that would be something to tip you off.

"The ships know when their crew are sending money because they buy money orders from the ship or the crew members themselves report suspicious activity.'' And Mr. Pitcher explains that the battle against drugs begins long before the deadly cargo reaches Bermuda.

He says: "We also have very good relations with counterparts in New York -- four cruise ships come out of New York. We also have links with UK Customs and the drugs liaison officer at the British Council in New York. He'll call with info from America. I pass info onto the US Customs and him.

"We've had successes -- as a result of information we gave them they made arrests in New York for the first time in a few years. Even though the arrests weren't taking place here, the drugs were destined for Bermuda. We prevented a couple of kilos of cocaine and marijuana from getting here.'' "Smugglers go to great lengths to get it on, then they divide it into smaller packages for body packaging -- typically two and a half kilo packages strapped round your waist or they smuggle it on in radios or cans, soda crackers cans.

"They are mode of choice in New York right now. The soda bread is to help ease stomach pains of sea sickness so it's a natural thing to be carrying on board.

"The ships are in the New York dock for eight hours, so Customs have a better chance of grabbing people walking on with the stuff -- often acting on information from us.

"They will call me and say we got this and we got that. We would have a fairly good idea of who crew members were associating with both on the ship and in Bermuda so we could pass that information on.'' Once a crew member is targeted he can expect a visit from the four-men rummage squad with sniffer dogs.

"We'll find out where he was working this week and go and look at his work areas and cabin areas with a rummage crew,'' Mr. Pitcher says. "We have had some good seizures that way.'' However Mr. Pitcher is keen to point out that the majority of cruise workers are not under the finger of suspicion, nor do Customs officers have the powers to roam at will.

"Crew members have rights which are explained to them,'' he says. "There are guidelines under the Revenue Act which you must follow, set by Cabinet.

"A senior officer must approve a pat-down search, approval by principal officers is needed for personal searches.

"If want to take somebody to hospital, I must get an Assistant Collector to approve it. And even if Customs are right about the suspect, they still have to find the drugs.'' One technique favoured by smugglers is to wrap the drugs in mustard and hide it in an overhead pipe in an oily engine room to maximise the chances of throwing the sniffer dogs off the scent.

But Mr. Pitcher says even this method can be foiled.

"Dogs are trained to work a cone of scent,'' he says. "They can follow a scent before it gets to the hiding place.

"One disadvantage is that we can't take dogs into a food preparation area.

We've made seizures there. Drugs hidden in the refrigerator or in a bin of flour.'' Gangway searches are a last resort as it is difficult to delay huge packs of people coming off the ship at the same time, Mr. Pitcher says.

"It's possible to do it then but the disadvantage is that ships have an established intelligence network so crew members quickly know you are there,'' he explains.

"We picked up a seizure this year with a combined team of Customs officers and Police working a gangway. We found a guy with two kilos of marijuana.

"We had one woman who tried to run off a ship when we challenged her. She dropped a package of marijuana in clingfilm.

"One of the other passengers picked it up and gave it to her saying, `I think this is yours'.'' But Mr. Pitcher was unable to say if smugglers were lobbing the drugs overboard to be picked up by accomplices on jet skis.

"We have had a heightened presences this year with Marine Police targeting a ship with 24-hours-a-day coverage of both sides,'' he says. "But towards the end we found some drugs floating in Hamilton harbour.

"But it's difficult to say if cruise ship workers are doing this. You don't know how much is arriving in the first place.

"We see primarily cocaine and marijuana from cruise ships. We haven't seen too much heroin coming from the States, most of that comes from Europe and Africa.

"Most of our drugs are from the States, especially marijuana and cocaine. We made some heroin seizures at the Airport where people have gone into London and Amsterdam and back.'' And every successful bust will prompt the dealers to try other methods to get the drugs in -- a perennial game of cat and mouse with dealers and Customs continually upping the ante with ever more sophisticated ways of foiling the other.

Mr. Pitcher explains: "We are still making lots of seizures in the courier facility and the envelope facility because the drug importers realise we are targeting the cruise ships.

"We've seen it in liquid deodorant, in hollowed out books, hair cream.

"We're seeing a hell of an increase in use of courier firms -- they guarantee fast delivery. Because of the volume these firms do in Bermuda the smugglers think they have less chance of getting their packages intercepted. "They'll wrap it in coffee, fabric softener, sheets, tea bags -- anything to disguise the odour. It generally doesn't work, a sniffer dog's nose is so sensitive -- 1,500 times more so than ours.

"The dealers are constantly refining their techniques. They have a billion dollar business.

"Liquid cocaine is the latest thing. It's less easy to detect. They put it in darker bottles so we can't see it. And everybody travels with rum as duty free.

"That was coming out of Jamaica. The first one was intercepted in Boston. We did a controlled delivery here and Judy and Comal Spence were arrested.

Another one was intercepted at the Airport a few weeks ago.

"In another case it was suspended in a child's toy -- fish floating in a glass jar. We spotted it because the liquid was so brown, thick and syrupy.'' The drugs barons also have methods of professionally sealing a bottle so it looks intact.

Mr. Pitcher says: "In Jamaica they have canning facilities where they will put marijuana in tins and then mix them in with a shipment of ordinary cans.

It could be dog food, soup tins, coke cans. We've had marijuana in juice cans through air cargo.

"However technology-wise, we're pretty much up on the edge.'' Centre piece in Customs' armoury is a trace particle machine bought for $70,000 last year which is capable of picking up tiny fragments of drugs on smugglers.

"It's so accurate,'' Mr. Pitcher notes, "the ion scanner can test particles on documents, suitcases. If a person handled drugs and then handled documents we can tell. You can't wash it off.

"(In one case), we took a microscopic sample and the person washed his hands two or three times but he couldn't wash it off.

"We've had a few arrests with that machine. In one case a traveller's story wasn't consistent so we tested the waist band of his pants and it lit up the scale. When we took him to the hospital and X-rayed him we could see the packages. On the same flight the machine picked up another swallower.

"The manufacturer is making a smaller, less expensive model so we may be looking at getting one of them to use on the docks and ships.

"We also have very sophisticated X-ray machines -- in the cargo shed, baggage haul, courier facility, airmail facility. We also have vans on the docks we can take place to place to X-ray things.'' "Cruise ships themselves are increasing their own security,'' Mr. Pitcher adds. "They have X-ray machines on cruise ships now.

But despite the high-tech gear old fashioned common sense is still crucial to nabbing the villains.

"Body language is great deal of the job,'' Mr. Pitcher says. "If you are doing something wrong, there is going to be a reaction. We're trained to pick up on those reactions.

"Some people starting twitching or answering no but nodding their head to say yes. Of course some people are just nervous flyers so it's hard to pick up on but our officers are trained in this.

Customs "If it's not drugs offences we pick up, it will be revenue offences, or maybe they are trying to smuggle a plant or an animal.'' However, Mr. Pitcher says, Customs also pick up the drug mules this way, desperate people recruited from some of the poorest neighbourhoods in New York. They are the cannon fodder of the drugs war.

Many have someone flying with them a few seats away. If they make it through Customs, they follow the mule and collect the drug later.

But if it all goes wrong, the minder can scarper and leave the mule to face the might of the law.

However for the mules caught on their own there is another option -- turning in their bosses.

Mr. Pitcher says: "If they cooperate when they are caught and do controlled deliveries and you've been successful and we've arrested somebody, then Police and the prosecution will work out a deal.

"They'll get a reduced sentence. But they don't get away scot free.

"Officers look for bulky out-of-season clothing which could be concealing packages. You look for regular routings on documents. Tell-tale signs are nervousness or inconsistent stories.

"Sometimes you look at someone and think there's absolutely no way this person belongs on this flight to Bermuda.

"They got no money, no clue what they are coming here for. When you open their bags, it's obvious they've just taken clothes out of the closet and thrown them in.

"One man came in with his welfare card and food stamps in his wallet. These things are instant giveaways.'' And for relatively small sums of money the mules are prepared to take even greater risks.

"Anyone who swallows drugs must be insane,'' Mr. Pitcher says, "that just blows my mind.

"Recently we had to send an officer into an operating room because a guy had swallowed drugs and one of the packages had started to leak so they had to operate to get them out.

"People have died in Bermuda from this.''