THE BRITISH Bases are beefing up their customs and police controls in the Dhekelia SBA in a crackdown on smuggling from the occupied north.
The bases yesterday reported a significant increase in contraband – seizing 350,000 cigarettes in the past six months – but what really worries them is the potential for major drug smuggling and illegal immigration.
And British officials warned they had intelligence that organised gangs were moving in on the operation, running illegal goods from north to south.
As part of their get-tough policy, the bases have recruited 12 new members to their customs team to combat the problem, a spokesman said yesterday.
Tony Brumwell told the Cyprus Mail there had been a significant increase in smuggling from the north – especially tobacco and alcohol – since restrictions on the freedom of movement were partially lifted by the Turkish Cypriot side on April 23 this year.
Eight of the new recruits are Turkish Cypriots and four are Greek Cypriots. Three are women.
“Customs officers have seen such items as clothing, alcohol, electrical goods, mobile phones, DVDs and small quantities of drugs,” Brumwell said.
“We are talking about dribs and drabs and stuff for personal use and we have not yet seen people trying to bringing items in commercial quantities, but this remains as a possibility.”
However, Brumwell added there was particular concern over the possibility of increased drugs smuggling from north to south.
He said there had been a major cannabis find in the north recently and that the potential existed for drugs smuggling at the Pergamos crossing point, which is within bases jurisdiction, as is Strovilia.
“There is the potential there for moving drugs across,” he said.
The major traffic movement through Pergamos is usually in the evening between 7 and 8pm. “That’s when most of the finds are made,” he said.
SBA police told yesterday’s issue of the bases newspaper The Lion that police and customs officers had seized over 350,000 cigarettes in the past six months.
Arthur Dunlop, Fiscal Officer for SBA Customs, said that the new team would not just be concentrating on random car searches.
“Any goods being imported illegally into the south have to be seized. Before the recruitment of the new staff, we were unable effectively to patrol the crossing points” Dunlop said.
“We are now able to introduce risk-based intelligence-lead searches, and that is how we will be controlling the boundary from now on. We have good information that particular gangs are well organised and running from north to south with cigarettes in particular.”
Dunlop warned that if such smuggling rackets were not nipped in the bud, it could lead to a far more serious situation involving drugs.
“There is also a problem of illegal immigrants,” he said. “We need to make sure that all those people crossing the boundary are allowed to according to the current laws,” he said.
An official statement from the bases yesterday said that a range of goods had been seized from a total of 638 people since Easter. It said that the new recruits had been selected as the strongest candidates from a list of more than 140 applicants. They have trained in law, evidence gathering, behavioural studies, dealing with the public and general customs issues. Contracts are for a period of one year but extensions are likely if there is no settlement to the Cyprus issue before EU accession in May next year, the statement said.
n In a sign of the new climate, reports in the Turkish Cypriot press yesterday claimed SBA officers were harassing Turkish Cypriots at the Pergamos checkpoint. One paper claimed police had carried out a sniffer dog search of a school bus full of children at the beginning of November, while another claimed a supply truck had been barred from crossing to deliver goods to Turkish Cypriot shops in the buffer zone village of Pyla.
