Soca seizes 75 tonnes of drugs

Updated 14.45 Fri May 18 2007

Keywords: heroin, cocaine, drugs, Soca, Serious Organised Crime Agency, crime

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has made a "real impact" in its first year, seizing nearly 75 tonnes of cocaine and heroin.

The agency, likened to the FBI in the US, also disclosed that three criminals had turned "supergrass" under new laws brought in to crackdown on the Mr Bigs of the criminal underworld.

The market value of the cocaine alone was £3 billion, which represented 20 per cent of Europe's estimated 350-tonne annual supply

It was initially unclear if the three criminals had received softer sentences from the courts in exchange for turning "Queen's Evidence" under the new legislation.

The report said the agency had identified an initial target list of more than 1,600 of Britain's worst criminals.

The full extent of the danger posed by some had not been fully realised because of what the report described as the "generally poor" intelligence picture inherited by Soca.

The drug seizures included 73 tonnes of cocaine, 1.5 tonnes of heroin, 4.4 million ecstasy tablets, 260 kilos of opium and one million doses of LSD.

The market value of the cocaine alone was £3 billion, which represented 20 per cent of Europe's estimated 350-tonne annual supply.

Soca also worked with police forces to prevent 35 potential murders, it added.

Soca began operation in April last year following the merger of the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the National Crime Squad and other law enforcement agencies.

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: "In its first year, Soca has made a real impact by seizing large quantities of Class A drugs, making well over a thousand arrests and preventing massive amounts of fraud - these are all fantastic achievements."