Drug seizures have risen 50 percent this year with heroin busts soaring by nearly 70 percent.

Nearly $3 million worth of heroin, around $3.5 million of cannabis and $430,000 of cocaine have been gathered so far but Police stressed it could be the tip of the iceberg.

Narcotics head Larry Smith said amounts seized generally constituted around ten percent of what was coming in.

Speaking exclusively to The Royal Gazette he said: ?If we only got ten percent then Bermuda has a serious problem.

?Bermuda is a very high user country. We seldom get drugs in transit to other regions.?

He said between 2002/03 the Customs and Police interdiction team took apart a number of major organisations and individuals which meant imports declined the following year.

But in 2004 the criminals regrouped and hit back, lured by vast profits.

However the figures are still down on 2002.

?Look at 2002, if we seized $44.5 million, or ten percent, then that is a scary statistic,? said Superintendent Smith as he spoke about the worrying levels of demand in the country.

?The public will read this and ask ?Are you getting better or are there just a lot of drugs coming to the country?? The answer is both.

?We are getting better at what we do. The figures reflect that from way back in 1999 when I took over.?

More sniffer dog units have helped. Narcotics now has five canine units while Customs have two.

?The canines attribute to the greater portion of border seizures.?

He says the team is now discovering new methods and trends early.

?But there are many more people becoming involved because of the lucrative street value.

?We have had 69 percent increase in heroin seizures and a 29.1 percent increase in crack seizures. Cannabis had increased by 58 percent.?

And cannabis still makes up the vast bulk of seizures.

Heroin importers stood to make a hundred times what they originally invested if they went to the right source said Mr. Smith.

?A kilo of heroin in Jamaica of 65 percent purity will cost $40,000. In Bermuda when you break it down you can make $4.3 million. You be the statistician, that?s a lot more than you get investing in your local bank.?

Drugs increase in price as they get further from origin. A kilo of cocaine costing $4,000 in Surinam will cost $22-30,000 on the US East coast but will go for ten times that in Bermuda.

?You are talking about $270,000 to $312,000.?

It is possible to determine where a batch comes from by sending samples overseas but it has yet to be done, said Supt Smith.

?Drugs come here from all over the globe. We have discovered some seizures coming from Africa.?

Methods of smuggling will be changed once the Police have made a seizure.

?We are looking for a needle in a haystack.? As an illustration of the difficulty in finding everything he estimated that the decorative eight-inch candle standing on his desk could mask half a kilo of cocaine worth $108,000.

Yet the Island has hundred of flights and yacht visits and hundreds of thousands of visitors coming every year, many bearing less than innocent cargo.

The Narcotics department stands at 39 when fully up to strength but many officers have to go overseas for investigations. Concentrating mainly on border protection was the primary concern said Supt. Smith.

?I think we do a damn good job looking for needles in haystacks. If you can cut of the stuff at the border, there will be less on the streets.

?We in Narcotics have to do the entire island. Drugs are not primarily a Narcotics problem, it?s a service problem.?

Asked about the constant public complaints, echoed by politicians, about open street dealing in many corners of Bermuda Supt. Smith said: ?It is regrettable there is a lot of open dealing in this country.

?What we find is that drug dealers seem to have no respect for uniformed personnel. ?I believe that uniformed personnel has created that to a certain extent. Oft times they don?t address this open dealing.

?So young men and women become comfortable. I don?t want to sound proud but allow a Narcotics vehicle to roll up and there?s a whole major scatter action.

?The same group that will openly sell even in the presence of uniform ? and that?s regrettable. There?s been some different philosophies. When I was Chief Inspector in Somerset ? I take pride in saying this ? I dealt with my own drug problems the western area.

?In the area I Policed I would not tolerate open drug dealing under my command when I worked out of western division.

?That doesn?t happen today. I know it looks bad and the public are not very happy with it.?

He said the PSU did an excellent job but the remainder of the service must be seen to take up the slack.

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Tomorrow: Looking for Mr. Big and Colin Coxall talks about Cleansweep