Hi-tech trap for drug mules

A major initiative to combat the multi-million cocaine trade flowing into Britain from Jamaica is being planned by Customs and police.

Passengers on flights leaving the island are to be screened using hitech hand-held "wands" which can detect if they have swallowed cocaine.

Police hope the government move will quickly get rid of the human drug "mules", and replace plans to bring in visas for travellers to the UK. Some estimates suggest more than one in 10 passengers on planes from Jamaica have swallowed packets of drugs to deliver to dealers here.

The development comes as Air Jamaica increases flights to Heathrow from five to nine a week from today.

Police fear this will increase drug smuggling and lead directly to more street crime as dealers engage in turf wars over crack cocaine.

Details of the initiative follow a recent visit to Scotland Yard by the Jamaican minister for national security Peter Phillips.

Jamaican police will screen potential drug mules before they embark on aircraft using drug swabs and the hand-held "wands" which can reveal cocaine. Anyone who tests positive for the drug will be X-rayed.

Police will target suspected mules rather than blanket-test passengers.

A police source said: "The British Government is putting a lot of money and effort into providing equipment and we'll also have input into training officers in Jamaica."

Detectives estimate that drug mules bring in as much as £2 million of cocaine a week through London airports. Each mule carries between a quarter and a half kilo of almost pure cocaine. One woman was found to have swallowed 94 packages of the drug.