between three major players in the game.

Representatives of Bermuda Customs, British Airways, and UK Customs and Excise, signed a Memorandum of Understanding last week to boost the level of communication and training between the organisations.

Collector of Customs Bill LeDrew said he was pleased to announce the deal which he said was a "major step forward''.

He said: "This is to lay the framework to improve the cooperation between us to stem the importation of drugs. An added feature is the renewing of ties with Her Majesty's Customs.'' Mr. LeDrew said Customs stopped more than $6 million in drugs from hitting the Island and while only a small portion of that came from the UK "drug dealers avoid routine''.

He added: "It is fair to say that we have not made many seizures from the UK.

This effort is as much prevention as anything else.'' Timothy Walker, deputy chairman of the board of commissioners of Customs, said the memorandum would improve the fight locally and could be used as a model around the world.

British Airways' director of customer service at Heathrow, Peter Read said the main elements to the memorandum would be through training and the sharing of intelligence.

Also present at the meeting was Secretary to the Cabinet Leo Mills, the senior management team of Customs, Philip Troake, BA's local representative and Tyler Moniz of the Ministry of Finance.