Fears Dutch drugs move could open floodgates

A new Dutch policy to let drug smugglers go free at airports could lead to more illegal substances coming into London, police fear.

Dutch authorities have said that they will not prosecute smugglers bringing cocaine into Holland - as long as they do not bring in more than three kilograms.

The Dutch Justice Ministry will simply deport traffickers caught at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport with less than £300,000 of the Class A drug and confiscate the narcotics.

A police source at Scotland Yard said that the move was being watched anxiously in London because it could lead to drug smugglers viewing Holland as an easy route to bring drugs into Britain from the Caribbean.

Decriminalising drug trafficking was "a step too far", said the source. Anti-drug campaigners have attacked the Dutch policy. David Raynes of Britain's National Drug Prevention Alliance said: "It is opening the floodgates and will affect the whole of Europe."

Most of the 45 tonnes of cocaine that is smuggled into Britain each year comes from Holland, and London is the main centre of distribution as well as the base for several major cocaine traffickers.

The Dutch policy applies to all 32 flights a week into Schiphol from the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean, as well as those from former Dutch dependency Surinam in South America.