One of the world's major centres for the international drugs trade is to follow in Bermuda's footsteps to combat illegal trafficking, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

The Miami branch of Crime Stoppers is taking the lead from the crime-cracking group in Bermuda, which was the first in the world to go on board cruise ships and target staff.

It is well-known in Bermuda that cruise ships are the main source of entry for illegal narcotics coming on to the Island.

To help reduce the volume of drugs making its way on to the streets, the Island's Crime Stoppers has been addressing crew members for about four years.

However, this year they teamed up with Customs officers in going on the liners to educate, as well as warn, staff about the risks they take in acting as drug mules.

They know that cruise ships, which can have up to 11 decks and 2,000 people on board, are too large to search properly, but in going on board to talk to staff, they hope to dissuade some from trafficking in the first place, and persuade others to snitch on colleagues they believe are importing drugs.

Since this year's summer season began on the Island, Crime Stoppers co-ordinator Alex McDonald and Principal Customs Officer Sean Pitcher have targetted every liner coming to the Island.

And their programme was considered so successful, their counterparts in Miami, renowned around the globe for its high crime rate and drug trafficking problems, is now considering following suit.

Mr. McDonald said it was a major compliment to Bermuda, its cruise ships and the members of the public who have assisted Crime Stoppers in building such a reputation and good record.

"Miami Crime Stoppers has seen our figures on the volume of drugs we managed to seize last year as a direct result of calls from the public and crew, that it now wants to get involved in the programme that we run,'' said Mr.

McDonald. "As we finish our cruise ship season they will be beginning theirs and that is when they will be putting their programme into operation. They are looking very closely at what we have been doing.

Miami follows Bermuda's drug-fighting lead "The Miami Crime Stoppers is very impressed that we have seized more drugs from the cruise ships than they have.

"As a result, they are looking to implement our programme and are learning from us what we have achieved and how we have gone about it.

"We are the only Crime Stoppers organisation in the world to undertake a programme like this where we go on board ships with Customs.

"We have had very positive feedback and it means we are actually targetting some of the people that matter.'' Last year, several crew members were sent to prison for smuggling drugs on to the Island. And in that year alone, Crime Stoppers was involved in the seizure of almost $3 million worth of illicit narcotics coming in from cruise ships alone.

Last night, Mr. Pitcher was not available for comment. However, he has previously said to The Royal Gazette that for every arrest, there are plenty more people willing to run the risk of being caught.

That is why an on-going programme has to be in place to re-iterate to crew members the dangers they face. He said: "The prices are so high for drugs here and there's so much money to be made -- that's our biggest problem.

"The cruise ship 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. 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 co-operation in the war on drugs.

"We've even had ships themselves make a seizure.'' The chairman of Miami Crime Stoppers could not be contacted last night.