DRUG smugglers have employed all manner of madcap and immoral methods to get their goods past border patrols: stuffed nappies, t-shirt cannons, medieval catapults and even breast implants.
But what all publications fail to mention is that in February officers seized 13 kilos of heroin...
Still, recent reports in the national media suggest that, had those smugglers come through Manchester Airport, they needn’t have bothered.
This follows a report from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration that reveals over a seven-month period between November 2014 and June 2015, UK Border Force (UKBF) sniffer dogs at Manchester Airport failed to discover any Class A drugs.
The six dogs, which cost in the region of £1.25m, did however detect ‘small amounts of cheese and sausages’, alongside 46,000 cigarettes, 60kg of tobacco, 181kg of ‘bush meat’ and £28k in cash.
The report, recently unearthed by the BBC, concluded that ‘Class A drug detections were not at the level that might be expected’, however admitted the ‘deterrent effect of the detection dogs was difficult to measure’.
A Home Office spokesperson stated that, while 'improvements need to be made', many 'are already being implemented'.
Manchester AirportThis is all well and good, great tabloid fodder. But what all of the publications - including The Telegraph, The Guardian and even the BBC - failed to mention is that in February this year, officers using detection dogs at Manchester Airport seized 13 kilos of heroin from a man arriving on a flight from Pakistan.
Or that in August 2015 a man from Batley was jailed for seven and a half years after Manchester Airport officers intercepted a suitcase containing 15kg of heroin.
Or that in June 2014 a 50kg stash of heroin - worth in the region of £5m - was detected by specialist sniffer dogs woven into rugs at Manchester Airport. Would this ‘sophisticated concealment’ have been detected without the use of dogs? Probably not.
These are but a few of the hundreds of kilos of Class A drugs seized at Manchester Airport in recent years.
Furthermore, the report states that UKBF sniffer dogs had detected Class B drugs and three lots of tablets including Human Growth Hormone, Viagra and Bromazepam. So what if during this seven-month period no smugglers had attempted to carry Class A drugs through Manchester Airport? It's possible.
Ok, so the report did highlight other shortcomings at the airport, including queue control and a lack of thorough immigration training, but the fact a dog sniffed out a sausage is hardly cause to string them up.
If we’re honest, what really concerns us is how six dogs and a few kennels can cost £1.25m – over two hundred thousand quid per bloody dog. What are we feeding them, giant white Alba truffles?
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