Guns are being smuggled into Bermuda on cargo ships -- and many are ending up in the hands of desperate drug dealers.

Now a special Police team has been formed to probe reports of illegal firearms.

And the Force is considering a firearms amnesty to encourage people to hand in their guns.

The gun smuggling was revealed yesterday by Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Perinchief.

He told The Royal Gazette yesterday that criminals claimed they got their weapons from cargo ship crew members.

Most smuggled guns had been stolen in the United States. And figures suggested they were coming in at a faster rate.

"We are extremely concerned about guns coming into the Island,'' Mr.

Perinchief said yesterday.

"I can assure you we are giving it the highest priority, along with the problem of drugs,'' he said. "Customs have been put on the alert.'' He said drugs, guns and robberies often went together.

"Guns mostly end up in the hands of dealers who want to protect their trade from other dealers.

"There are a lot of rip-offs in the drug fraternity.'' Latest figures point to a marked increase in illegal firearms in Bermuda -- underlined by recent armed robberies at bank branches in Southampton and Somerset.

Between January 1 and September 30 this year, Police dealt with 22 cases involving firearms, mainly handguns.

In these cases the weapons had been seized or used, explained Mr. Perinchief.

Statistics over the same nine-month period in previous years are: 13 (1993); 9 (1992); 3 (1991); and 16 (1990).

Mr. Perinchief urged caution over the figures, however.

Many of the reported cases of firearms may actually have involved imitation weapons, he stressed.

"Imitation guns are used to intimidate. Of course, if you have a fake gun shoved in your face, it makes no difference whether it is real or imitation.

The effect is the same.'' He also pointed out "BB guns'' -- similar to air pistols -- were included in the tally of firearms.

"I believe we have seized at least five BB guns over the last two years,'' said Mr. Perinchief. "Most of them were seized by a search warrant.'' He added: "BB guns are dangerous and can kill if someone is shot through the eye, for instance.

"About 18 months ago there was the case of a bouncer who was shot outside the Oasis with a `BB gun'. He was shot in the face, although luckily not in his eye.'' Mr. Perinchief said the guns recovered from crooks were mainly small firearms.

"We are talking about 9 millimetre guns , or .25s. There was one case, however, where we recovered a sub machine gun.'' Mr. Perinchief revealed a special Police team had been formed this year to look into reports of firearms.

"We treat these very seriously indeed. The Police track every report of a weapon, and instigate a search warrant where necessary.'' Mr. Perinchief said Police had evidence of drugs coming in via cruise ships.

"There is no evidence that guns are coming in this way, but there is some evidence that they are coming in through commercial traffic. By that I mean freight boats.

"We haven't made any seizures of caches, but we have taken handguns from criminals over a period of time.

"They report that they get their guns from crew members of these freight boats.

"The freighters run between Bermuda and New Jersey and New York. They are small freight boats which come to Hamilton and St. George's.

"Customs are on a high state of alert, looking for both drugs and firearms.'' Mr. Perinchief said serial numbers were used to trace weapons to their source.

One gun had been stolen from a security guard's hut in upstate New York.

"Within six months it had ended up in Bermuda. We traced another firearm to Miami,'' he said. "Normally the weapons we find here have been stolen.'' He added: "As far as we know there is no organised operation bringing firearms into this country.'' Mr. Perinchief also said Police were considering another firearms amnesty.