A massive influx of heroin into the Island has been blamed for a 20 percent hike in crime for the first three months of the year.

And Police Commissioner Jonathan Smith yesterday appealed for people to seek help for addicted family members after claiming that drug seizures for this year were soaring.

The Royal Gazette revealed on Tuesday that narcotics and Customs officers had already exceeded last year's confiscation rate of $7 million, by seizing $8.3 million worth of illegal substances in the first three months of the year alone.

However, in the last two days, there has been another major seizure of heroin with a street value of about $1.4 million.

And head of Bermuda narcotics, Detective Chief Inspector Larry Smith last night said that in the last day he had carried out a full breakdown of seizures for this year and calculated that a massive $12.4 million worth of drugs had now been confiscated since the start of the year. That means Bermuda is set to, at least, double its seizure rate of last year by the end of 2001.

The majority of the drugs found were identified as heroin.

At a press conference yesterday, Mr. Smith said he believed the sudden rise in crime during the first quarter this year was down to the enormous increase in the use of heroin.

He said the correlation between the number of heroin seizures both at Bermuda International Airport and on the streets, and the hike in property crimes, could not be ignored.

He said he was unable to predict whether this year's trend would continue -- but in previous years the first three months of the year have been known to be the quietest for crime. Usually, as the temperature increases, so does the frequency of crime.

"We have seen an increase in the availability of heroin at the street level,'' said the Commissioner.

"Heroin is particularly addictive and also leads to an increase in property crime.

"I would encourage families that if they suspect a family member of using heroin, if they can, to get professional help.

"There are many committed professionals in the drug prevention and drug field who can help them.'' But he said Police and Customs were making seizures and would continue in their battle against drugs.

And he said the Police would continue to throw their weight behind interdiction.

He added: "We can deal with what's here now. We can make the seizures now, but I can't make a prediction about the availability of drugs (for the rest of the year).

"I am putting that plea out to tell people that clearly there is heroin out there, but we are doing everything we can to reduce the availability.'' Rise in crime blamed on heroin During the first three months of this year there have been 710 incidents of crime.

This is in comparison to 593 incidents during the same period last year, and 694 during the first quarter of 1999.

And the number of grievous bodily harm complaints has shot up this year to 16, from just seven last year. However, in 1998, there were 18 reports of GBH during the first few months of the year.

Other areas of concern are handbag snatches. This year there were 14 during the first three months, five of them on tourists. In previous years, the number has been minimal.

Housebreaking has almost doubled this year, from 74 during the first quarter of last year, to 140 this year. Store-breaking and attempted break-ins have also increased.

And the theft of motorcycles has also risen, going from 108 in the first three months of last year, to 155 so far this year.

Assistant Commissioner Carlton Adams, who is responsible for all Police operations, said there was a 19.7 percent increase in crime on last year.

However, he said the figures had to be looked at in comparison to each of the figures for the same period during the last six years, rather than just 2000.

And, he said, when compared to every quarterly figure since the start of 1998, the latest figure is not that bad.

He said: "Although our total crimes are up on last year, it's not as bad as it has been in the past.

"It's not been as bad as it could have been and we anticipate that with our continued efforts, we will be able to stop it from escalating further.'' Mr. Smith said that last year, there were just over 14 homes broken into for every 1,000, but for the first quarter this year, that has risen to 21.1 per thousand.

And last year, there were 36.6 motorcycles stolen for every 1,000, but during the first three months of this year, that figure has risen to 38.1.

However, he said there was good news on road accidents so far this year.

The daily collision rate has fallen from 7.5 per day for last year, to 6.65 per day this year.

And with those figures comes a reduction in injuries caused by road accidents.

Last year there were 2.79 injuries a day, in comparison to 2.14 this year.

CHART Total Numbers of Crimes for First Quarter