Public Safety Minister David Burch has called for a "Cleansweep-style" crackdown on street pushers and this time Government is prepared to live with the public backlash.

And he also revealed that Customs would soon be scanning every container that hit Bermuda's shores, for drugs and guns.

Police must do more to tackle street pushers, said Sen. Burch yesterday. "Everybody knows they sell drugs on 42nd Street and Court Street. Everybody knows if they don't have the drugs on them you are unlikely to bust them.

"But you could shut down their business simply by parking a Police car out there all day."

In the late 1990s, under Police Commissioner Colin Coxall's Operation Cleansweep, dozens of street dealers were rounded up in the hope that it would put the squeeze on the people higher up.

But before that could be done there was reaction from relatives of those arrested and the campaign was dropped by the then United Bermuda Party government.

Asked if it was time to look at revisiting the approach, Sen. Burch said: "That is almost precisely what I am calling for.

"And what I am telling mommies in advance who consider their little people to be so innocent they can whine all they like. I am not backing down."

And the big men behind the drug cartels would not be left untouched, said Sen. Burch, although it would take a lot of work to nail them.

"In those cases you need a long period of time to gain the evidence to get to those people because they've got all sorts of indians down there who are prepared to get busted for them."

Recent Police figures reveal drug seizures have plummeted in the past four years while drug experts say the supply is as plentiful as ever. But Sen. Burch said: "We have seen some fairly sizeable seizures in the US that were destined for the US based on intelligence. So that helps us.

"But I am still not comfortable that the source of importation in this Country is being adequately addressed at the docks in Hamilton."

He said Customs was working on getting equipment to X-ray every container that hit Bermuda for drugs and weapons.

"I can tell you right now there is going to be cries of complaint from importers but I am saying to them start crying.

"You are either serious about arresting the problem of importation of drugs that come into this Country and every container gets X-rayed or you are not. We will have to live with the criticism."

Collector of Customs Winifred Fostine-DeSilva said her department was reviewing options and within the next six to nine months X-ray equipment would be installed on Hamilton docks capable of scanning 120 containers an hour.

The X-ray equipment will cost around $2-3 million but she said the new technology shouldn't slow down dock operations unless something was found.

"It only takes seconds to be vetted and the officers will be fully trained.

"It scans from the top to the bottom and both sides. It sees into the container just like an X-ray will look into your body, this will look into your container."

The US Government are now insisting that from 2012, every container departing Bermuda to the US must be X-rayed before it leaves, added Mrs. Fostine-DeSilva.