Coast Watch Wales aims to keep maritime crime at bay

A maritime version of Neighbourhood Watch, intended to make life more difficult for drug smugglers and people traffickers, is being launched to help police monitor remote coves and isolated beaches. The Coast Watch Wales scheme is intended to alert authorities to suspicious activity spotted by people who live along the 750 miles of Welsh coastline or who use the waters for business and pleasure. For hundreds of years the Welsh coast has been used by organised criminals and small time crooks to land contraband. The idea of the new scheme is to use local people as extra eyes and ears for Border Force officials, police, coastguards and other agencies. A single point of contact has been created and a website developed. Publicity material for the scheme has been placed at key points, from marinas to seaside pubs. The Welsh arm of the UK Border Agency said the coast was difficult to patrol because much of it is undeveloped. "The public is used to the idea of Neighbourhood Watch. Now we're asking maritime communities to help us protect the Welsh coastline by making it simpler to report suspicious activity," said Marc Owen, the director of UK Border Force for Wales. Examples of recent matters that have been flagged up to the authorities include: • Night time signalling between vessels at sea and persons ashore. • Large vessels both at anchor and underway being approached by smaller craft. • Items or people being landed in remote coastal areas. • Inexperienced crew on board vessels arriving at and leaving marinas and harbours. • Large sums of cash being used to buy or rent vessels. • Vessels leaving or arriving at marinas and harbours at irregular times. • Light aircraft landing on remote beaches and coastal areas. • Items being attached to marker buoys. • Large numbers of passengers boarding or leaving vessels. • 4 x 4 vehicles on remote beaches. • Inexperienced individuals buying nautical equipment. The Border Force said the scheme had not been prompted by a significant rise in smuggling. But it highlighted cases including Operation Panama Canal in 2006, which resulted in the prosecution of more than 20 criminals from the UK, Spain, France and Jamaica who had been bringing drugs into the UK via the Welsh coast. The force also recalled the bales of cocaine that washed up on beaches in north and west Wales in 2008, each with a street value of more than £2m. All were found and reported by members of the public. Another famous case was that of the so-called Sea Bay drugs gang that operated in the 1980s in Pembrokeshire. Suspicions were raised after members of the gang paid for rounds of drinks in seaside pubs by delving into bags full of £20 notes. Andy Edwards, the deputy chief constable of Wales, said the coastline was a "wonderful" feature but also an "opportunity" for criminals.