within an hour of a ship docking, The Royal Gazette has learned.

On Friday evening, just an hour after Bermuda's new weekend cruise ship the Crown Dynasty berthed, passengers were able to walk straight off the ship and into Dockyard without being stopped by any officials.

Passengers were able to freely disembark and enter Bermuda with no identifiable Immigration, Customs, or Police officers anywhere to be seen.

Collector of Customs Bill Ledrew admitted last night that there may have been a "glitch'' with the inaugural cruise and assured it would be corrected by next Friday's docking.

He noted that the Crown Dynasty was inspected initially by a Customs officer upon its arrival and there was an unmarked van observing the gangway.

However, a Royal Gazette reporter, who had sailed to Bermuda on the ship, was able to walk straight off the ship, through the terminal and into a taxi without being stopped.

Customs nowhere in sight Mr. Ledrew said that starting next week security guards will be posted at the Customs sheds/cruise terminals in St. George's, Hamilton and Dockyard to monitor the immediate area.

Earlier this year he said greater use of intelligence reports would be used instead of having the 24-hour presence at the gangway. This was in response to a Cabinet-ordered five percent spending cut throughout Government.

It was determined the decision to not employ 15 temporary officers would save the Customs service $100,000 a year.

Yesterday, Mr. Ledrew said: "What normally happens is when our boarding officer gets on, an announcement is made that departing passengers, people who won't be cruising back, must present their declaration forms.

"Whether or not that happened Friday, I can only speculate right now,'' Mr.

Ledrew said. "No doubt we will have to work with them, and I say that without pointing blame. I was on board myself for the presentation and I noted some things. We get the passenger list, the vessel report, and a list of departing passengers. That some people may not have been seen by our people could be a glitch that will have to be addressed,'' he added.

When asked about the success of the new approach to drug interdiction and tariff collection, Mr. Ledrew said: "It's only been a couple of weeks. But I'm quite satisfied with the way things are shaping up.

"The main focus is in keeping contraband off the Island. Time will tell how well this is doing. I do suspect the two people you saw were our people monitoring what is going on though.'' But a source close to the drug war yesterday blasted the new policy, saying officers were still needed to monitor the ships at all times. "Intelligence is fine but you simply need to have somebody eyeballing the ports at all times,'' he said. "Narcotics is working flat out now even with more people on board and they're not keeping up. This new policy is a golden opportunity (to drug dealers).''