Airport dogs find ‘cheese and sausages’ rather than Class A drugs
Sniffer dogs at Manchester Airport have been detecting ‘cheese and sausages’ rather than Class A drugs, says a report by inspectors.
The report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration said the sniffer dogs had failed to find any Class A drugs in a seven-month period and questioned the return on investment, with £1.25m spent on new kennels and operating the six-dog unit.
And it added that one of the sniffer dogs, which was trained to find animal products, had detected cheese and sausages wrongly brought back by holidaymakers.
The report said: "Heroin and cocaine were assessed as ‘very high’ priority within both air passengers and freight. Yet, according to the data provided by Border Force, the dogs had made no Class A drugs detections in the period November 2014 to June 2015.
"When deployed, the POAO dog made multiple accurate detections, but most were of small amounts of cheese or sausages, wrongly brought back by returning British holidaymakers and posing minimal risk to UK public health."
The report into Border Force operations also found that four out of five suspicious passengers were not interviewed by immigration officers.
Of the 50 sample cases studied at Manchester Airport, only 10 travellers who raised suspicions were questioned by border guards.
It said staff had failed to abide by Home Office guidelines to question a traveller when there was concern over why they were coming to the UK.
A Home Office spokesman told the Daily Mail: ‘Security at the border is our priority and the Chief Inspector recognises that staff at Manchester Airport are conducting all required checks at passport control, while at the same time responding efficiently to increased passenger numbers.
"However, we acknowledge that further improvements need to be made."
Diane
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