Some 50 pounds of drugs that had been seized from an incoming container ship by Customs officials last week were stolen from their custody less than 24 hours later, a Customs source has revealed.

The source, who requested anonymity, told The Royal Gazette that a container holding 30 pounds of marijuana and 20 pounds of either marijuana or cocaine had been targeted for inspection by Customs officials last week and was subsequently locked up for the night at Number 7 dock in Hamilton.

The next morning, the source continued, Customs officers returned to the the dock to discover that the container had been broken into and the drugs stolen.

Police confirmed yesterday that Customs officials had reported an overnight break-in at the dock on November 16. It is believed that the container was aboard the container ship Bermuda Islander , which had arrived in Bermuda two days earlier.

She left Number 7 dock for New Jersey on November 15.

"Nobody watched it,'' the source said of the container. "Nobody was monitoring it. They did not use an eight-hour camera on it and they didn't even put a substitute lock on.'' The source claimed a "flimsy'' Crown lock was the only thing securing the unit.

Last night, Collector of Customs Mr. Gerry Ardis refused to confirm that the container held narcotics, saying it had been penetrated by the thieves before officers had a chance to inspect it.

"I can't confirm because nobody knows what was in it,'' he said. "I don't don't know and I don't think anybody else does either.'' The source, however, claimed that "people on the street were laughing (over the theft). Everyone thinks it's a joke.'' The Royal Gazette was also told that the dogs Customs officials use to sniff out narcotics had "acted up'' around the container.

Police spokeswoman Insp. Roseanda Jones, meanwhile, declined yesterday to comment on the contents of the container, but Chief Insp. Norrell Hull told The Gazette that he had visited the crime scene on the morning in question.

Chief Insp. Hull is the head of Police Services' narcotics division.

"I went down on the morning of the 16th,'' he said yesterday. "(My presence) would indicate that it may have been drugs that were stolen. Drugs are suspected -- let me put it that way.'' Though Mr. Ardis explained that it was not unusual to have Chief Insp. Hull at the dock, which was also visited by the Police's Scenes of Crime division, he too admitted that the contents of the container were most likely drugs. "It's reasonable to assume it was drugs,'' he said, adding: "You can criticise all you want but we've had a lot of success catching smugglers this year. This was just unfortunate.'' The source, however, questioned the value of targeting probable drug shipments to Bermuda if Customs was going to be so lax about securing them. "This should not have happened,'' the source told The Gazette . "What kind of drug combating are we doing?'' Insp. Jones said an investigation into the break-in was continuing.