Reducing supply
Strategy
Preventing harm to communities by reducing supply of drugs into and within the country.
Explore this section:
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Incorporates dealing on the street to dealing from business or residential premises.
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Typically operating above the level of street dealers but below that of importation.
Strategy
Our approach to tackling the supply of drugs focuses on five key elements:
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tackling the drugs which cause the greatest harm
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maintaining strong UK border controls
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expanded international co-operation to reduce trafficking into the UK
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closer working between the agencies tackling drug supply
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targeting criminal assets
Tackling the drugs that cause the greatest harm
Class A drugs, particularly heroin, cocaine and crack, remain the focus for enforcement. However, emerging drug threats, such as methamphetamine, will be monitored and resources redirected where necessary.
Maintaining strong UK border controls
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) use intelligence and assessments of risk in operating border controls. The UK Border Agency, brings together parts of HMRC and the Border and Immigration Agency and will provide better integrated border controls.
Implementing UK border controls overseas can be very effective in reducing trafficking. Operations Airbridge and Westbridge, joint operations between the UK and Jamaica and Ghana, significantly reduced the number of drug swallowers detected arriving in the UK from those countries. The government plans to create similar partnerships with other governments in the supply chain.
The Home Office will continue to encourage and promote research to develop technology to improve detection capabilities that lead to more drugs being detected.
Expanded international co-operation to reduce trafficking into the UK
Drugs leaving producer countries and passing through transit countries on their way to the UK will be targeted. SOCA, supported by HMRC and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), will maintain a network of liaison officers in priority countries whose work will include interrupting the supply of drugs into the UK.
FCO will continue to work with the government of Afghanistan to implement its national drug control strategy to combat the drug trade.
We will develop the effectiveness of international co-operation through established multilateral organisations, such as the United Nations and the European Union, as well as through ad hoc multilateral groupings.
A recent successful example of such co-operation is the establishment of the Maritime Analysis and Operation Centre - Narcotics (MAOC-N), based in Lisbon. This brings together seven countries, including the UK, to gather intelligence and mount joint operations against shipments of cocaine crossing the Atlantic. We will extend the involvement of the UK in such collaborative efforts where they are of clear benefit.
Close working between the agencies involved in tackling drug supply
Action to tackle drug supply within the UK involves the collaboration of a range of national and international partners and drugs will remain a strategic priority for SOCA, working with HMRC and the police. SOCA will continue to improve identification of the key criminals involved in the importation of drugs and improve the efficiency of investigations and operations against them. Work will also continue to identify and target drug dealers operating within the UK at regional level.
A senior cross-agency police and law enforcement group has been established to ensure a co-ordinated operational response to drug trafficking.
Targeting criminal assets
Evidence suggests that asset recovery greatly worries criminals at the higher levels. It also has a potential to play against lower level supply in local based communities. An approach to asset seizure which has shown much promise is based on three elements:
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a new administrative procedure for cash forfeitures, where cash is forfeited automatically unless the owner exercises his right to a court hearing
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the automatic transfer of the title to the Crown of property under restraint following a confiscation order
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the power to allow law enforcement to seize high value goods,to avoid them being dissipated by the offender pending confiscation by the courts
