Police: 'It's still too easy to traffic drugs to the Isle of Man'

DCI describes Island's borders as 'porous' 

Police say they will ‘relentlessly pursue’ organised crime groups who are trying to exploit the Island.

But they’ve warned that the Isle of Man’s borders are ‘porous’ and say it’s still too easy for people to traffic drugs here.

Last week 11 people were jailed for their involvement in supplying cocaine, brought in by others, to undercover police officers.

It followed a covert operation run between the Isle of Man Constabulary and the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit called ‘Operation Nightjar’.

You can find out more about it HERE.

Chief Constable Russ Foster said: "Tackling organised criminality is one of the Isle of Man Constabulary’s top priorities and, together with other law enforcement agencies, we have continued to relentlessly pursue people trying to exploit our Island and we will endeavour to make the Isle of Man a hostile environment for such criminality to thrive.

"We have taken a multi-faceted approach and are working together with government and other law enforcement agencies to strengthen the security of our Island with a view to preventing and detecting serious and organised crime."

Detective Chief Inspector Michelle McKillop said: "The prevalence of cocaine dealing on the streets of Douglas is quite disturbing.

"This Island is relatively safe but we are seeing an increase in serious assaults and the severity of assaults which are linked to organised crime.

"Vulnerable members of the community are being exploited to facilitate organised crime locally.

"Not only that but the blasé attitude we have seen towards dealing class A controlled drugs by these individuals is a concern.

"The IOMC is working closer than ever with partners both locally and in the UK to proactively target key members of organised crime groups, disrupting and dismantling their empires, seizing significant amounts of drugs before they hit the streets and taking cash which has been acquired as proceeds from such criminality.

"As you will have already seen in the media some of the criminals in these higher echelons of these organised crime groups have had significant prison sentences imposed which should be seen as a deterrent, in so much as we will not tolerate such criminality as a society here in the Isle of Man and we will not stop our relentless pursuit of the offenders.”

Prison sentences totalling more than 30 years were handed down as part of 'Operation Nightjar'.

DCI McKillop says she hopes it will act as a deterrent to others considering selling illegal drugs:

You can listen to the full interview with DCI McKillop via the Manx Radio Newscast below: