Police are going after the big boys in the drugs world but have refused to provide figures on seizure rates, despite criticism by former Narcotics head Larry Smith.

Mr. Smith, in a letter to this newspaper, said under his leadership between mid-1999 until retirement in mid-2006, the Narcotics Division/HM Customs had seized $361.2 million of drugs worth an average of $45 million per annum.

He urged a return to strict border control and said the Narcotics Division, down to 23 from 39 under his watch, needed boosting.

Police say drugs remain the number one priority but have declined to share figures on recent annual seizure rates.

Acting Commissioner Michael DeSilva said: "We are actively pursuing drug importation.

"If there is a paradigm shift, it is that we are focusing our efforts beyond 'drug mules' at the airports and on the ships.

"We have raised our sights on the organisers, the financiers and the profiteers that are making the money from this insidious crime.

"This is a targeted approach that uses intelligence that comes from the community to catch the people doing the most harm and take away their cash, dismantle their operations and strip away their criminal assets."

Mr. DeSilva said the rise of gangs and the use of violence to protect criminal enterprises showed the problem cannot just be tackled at the borders but required an active and determined police presence on our streets.

"It requires our commitment to work closely with our communities to tackle the underlying social problems that allow gangs, drugs and firearms to exist in the first place."

Declaring war on members of the community as has been suggested will produce casualties, said the Acting Commissioner.

But empowering communities to take back their streets, deflect children from lives of crime, bring offenders to justice and rehabilitate drug users are the long-term, meaningful solutions, said Mr. DeSilva. So some narcotics officers had been redeployed to Community Action Teams to address problems at the local level.

Intelligence reports and investigations by Police here had been instrumental in significant arrests and seizures in the US, UK and the Caribbean over the last two years, said Mr. DeSilva.

"In one 2008 case, the Bermuda Police Service worked with the FBI to interdict 1,000 kilos of cannabis on a vessel making its way to Bermuda from the US. That case is under investigation by the US authorities."

However Mr. Smith said a shift of resources away from border enforcement was absurd.

"Bermuda have no clandestine labs where drugs are manufactured and there is only a small portion of cannabis grown locally. Therefore, it's safe to assume that all drugs surfacing throughout the Island, are imported. Why then, are the borders being neglected or should I say, not enforced aggressively?

"Let me pose a common sense question to the Governor and current administration. Why miss the seizure of a kilogram of drugs at the border, let's say heroin with an estimated street value of approximately $3-4 million dollars, have the substance enter the Island, only to seize piecemeal portions on the streets? Is that logical? I say not. And we wonder why the Country is under siege?

"With this new methodology, the bad guys are winning the drug war and making a boat load of money. And of course if you miss drugs at the borders, you're certainly gonna be missing guns.

"This methodology is ill-advised as drugs is considered to be one of the, if not the major ill in our society and the catalyst to most violent crimes. The reduction of the agency primarily responsible for combating this menace is incomprehensible."

Mr. Smith, who lives in Florida, said he was home recently and witnessed for himself that the Narcotics Division had "literally surrendered" the intense border enforcement and now concentrated on street enforcement. "And as such, only minor players are being prosecuted."

However Mr. DeSilva said the borders were still being worked.

"Narcotics interdiction at our ports of entry is a shared responsibility with HM Customs and our partnership with that agency remains strong."

He said on Wednesday excellent work by customs officers at the Airport led to drug seizures and the arrests of three people.

And he said the new X-Ray equipment Customs will get at the docks was further evidence of the commitment to border-hardening and the interdiction effort.