that Bermuda dealers could get violent as their supplies are cut off.

And officers in charge of the undercover missions to snare traffickers have revealed their operations stretch to the UK, Canada, and major ports and airports in the US.

The investigators warned that Bermuda could see a rising tide of violence as more and more drug lines are snapped, with one alleged trafficking ring already behind bars.

Senior officers revealed last night that surveillance went much further than Operation Bermuda Triangle, which netted 13 Jamaican suspects operating on cruise ships from New York between March and this weekend.

Now all the airlines serving Bermuda have fallen under the spotlight of the joint operation.

Police and Customs teams are liaising with counterparts in the UK -- monitoring flights from Gatwick -- and Jamaica.

They also revealed they had "surveillance links'' with agents at every departure point in the US and Canada, where cruise ships, cargo ships or planes leave for Bermuda.

But Chief Insp. George Jackson, the Bermuda officer in command of the operations, said: "There may be an increase of violence as a result of our cutting into this organisation. We must mention that people may start getting a bit hyper for the lack of drugs available.'' Operation Bermuda Triangle, co-ordinated with the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Manhattan, cut off up to half of Bermuda's drug supply using wire-taps to monitor suspects' phones and undercover officers posing as drugs customers.

Workers from four cruise ships -- the Zenith , Horizon , Norwegian Crown and Norwegian Majesty -- are now being held in New York. All the accused are Jamaicans and have been charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics.

But the focus has already switched to the Bermudian runners who collect drugs from cruise ship workers or airline passengers, ready to deal on Island streets.

Chief Insp. Jackson said no Bermudians had been arrested so far but some of the Jamaican suspects had been arrested in Bermuda. And he said a "dedicated team of officers'', armed with leading-edge technology, were no longer concentrating solely on cruise ships.

"When we look at the distribution chain here, the majority of suspects are Bermudians,'' he said, promising more arests were "pending''.

"Now it's a case of tracing that distribution chain and cutting the supply off completely.'' But he added: "Drug traffickers don't just use one port of departure. We are not only looking at cruise ships coming from New York. We are looking at other ports. We are looking at the airports that serve Bermuda and also the cargo vessels. In fact, we are looking at all the areas we have direct connections with in the US, Canada and Britain, where we are working with British Customs and British Police. This is one of the major operations that we have conducted. We are talking about a very large net.'' He said the mission, which included officers searching cruise ship workers with hi-tech hand-held scanners, was "intelligence driven''.

Editorial: Page 4 Drugs violence feared And more Police and Customs officers are being sent on dog-handling courses so they can run sniff-searches on board ships.

Principal Customs Officer Sean Pitcher added: "We are working in partnership with the Police on this particular investigation and other similar operations.

All of our operations are intelligence-based.'' Chief Insp. Jackson said he could not reveal the exact number of arrests made in Bermuda or the amount of drugs seized on the Island.

"We don't want to tip anybody off that we may be after them,'' he said. "But we are appealing to the public. If they see anything at all they feel may be worth reporting, call us.'' The DEA in New York said officials had seized cocaine with a Bermuda street value of $250,000 and marijuana with a Bermuda value of $72,000 from suspects boarding cruise ships in Manhattan.