A Police narcotics officer has revealed that Bermuda's policing of cruise ships is set to be reviewed after admitting that it had been a poor season for drug seizures at the terminals.

Superintendent Larry Smith said, in his opinion, Customs officers should be back manning the terminals instead of security guards because they had greater powers to search people who were suspected of bringing drugs into the Country.

He claimed the current set-up, where private security firms manned the terminals, was open to abuse.

He said even if security firms did suspect someone of bringing in drugs, by the time they called one of the agencies to attend, "a window of opportunity could have been lost".

Supt. Smith said limited resources meant Customs and Police could not target every liner that docked on the Island each week, so in many cases drug mules were suspected of bringing their wares into Bermuda totally undetected.

But he said by changing their methods of detection, such as focussing on cargo and parcel post, he was hopeful the enforcement agencies, working in partnership, would see a higher seizure rate next year.

Supt. Smith said despite recording one of the best years ever for drug seizures across the Island with more than $18 million being confiscated so far this year, very little had been caught from the cruise ships.

He said: "The cruise ship season was not as successful as we would have liked. There is going to be a review with Customs for the 2002 season.

"There was a dedicated team for the cruise ship terminals. The number of enforcement resources did not decrease and I don't think the methods of importation changed very much. But obviously we need a change of approach between the two agencies."

And he said although he did not think replacing Customs officers with security guards at the terminals last year had affected the interdiction rate, he believed Customs officers should be on site.

He said: "I don't think the change in Customs has changed anything, but security firms are not enforcement agencies.

"Security firms are not as security-minded or as diligent as Customs or the Police. It could leave the terminals wide open to abuse.

"But I can't say that that's part of the problem. All I can say is that our methodology is not right.

"If I had any input, I would like to see a Customs officer reverted back to the gang planks.

"Customs have more powers, where as the security firms have limited or little powers. A Customs officer would have a greater impact than security officers.

"For instance, even if a security officer had a suspicion, I do not believe they have the same powers under the Revenue Act as a Customs officer to search, and they definitely don't have the same powers to search as Police under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

"It is not my responsibility - they have to make that decision themselves - but, if it was up to me, there would be Customs on the cruise ship terminals."

Government came under fire last year after it announced its cost-cutting plan to remove 15 temporary Customs officers employed during the cruise ship season from the terminals, replacing them instead with security firms.

Opposition MPs and Senators claimed it was making Bermuda an easy target for drug dealers and would lead to more crime.

But Collector of Customs at the time Bill Ledrew said instead of having temporary officers with limited authority and training at the gang planks, it would be better to use security firms and have 24 hour coverage from mobile Police and Customs units.

Supt. Smith said yesterday that cruise ships were very difficult to Police because passengers were free to come and go as they pleased, and there were so many places to stash drugs.

But he also said Bermuda faced additional problems because ships stayed in port on the Island for several days, giving passengers and staff many opportunities to get drugs off, as opposed to the Caribbean, where ships stayed in a port often only a few hours.

And he said with limited resources, the agencies were only able to target one of the five cruise ships every week.

Supt. Smith said he believed that when one of the cruise liners was being targeted, drug mules on board, fearing they would be caught, simply took the drugs back to the US with them.

The following week, he said, they may have brought the drugs back to Bermuda in the hope that a different ship was being targeted, so they could unload their drugs - albeit a week later than planned.

He added: "It's not an easy task. If we select a ship, we have to watch it for four days, not just a few hours.

"It's all about out-foxing and out-tiring the drug mules.

"They are saying, `we have the drugs and you have to find them'."

Speaking hypothetically, he said: "If we had the resources and money, which is a lot easier said than done, and it was up to me, the enforcement teams would be bigger and I would encourage a larger cruise ship enforcement team with sufficient staff to cover the five ships, as opposed to just one a week.

"But we will review our methodology, and continue to use and build on our intelligence, and I believe we will be successful next year."

Assistant Collector of Customs Larry Conn would not comment on the issue of security guards at the cruise ship terminals.

And he said he believed the key to drug interdiction was targeting key risk areas.

He added: "Customs and Police will be meeting for a postmortem of the cruise ship season and we look to have a more aggressive approach on other areas of entry, such as cargo.

"The time the ships are in port definitely makes it a challenge, but there is not a lot we can do about that.

"Like any department, we could do with more resources, but we have to work with what we have got.

"Resources are finite, but I think what we are trying to do is work more effectively with what we have got on intelligence.

"Instead of a blanket coverage, we need to hit the areas of high risk.

"I said at the start of the season that drug interdiction was unpredictable in terms of success in any particular area, and that's been reflected in the year we have had."