Major fall 
in heroin 
seizures

Figures released by the Home Office yesterday showed that police and the UK Border Agency made fewer seizures of class A and class C drugs in 2011/12 compared with the previous year.

Confiscations of class A drugs dropped by five per cent, while class C were down eight per cent.

Cocaine was the most commonly confiscated class A drug, with the number of seizures down one per cent, and heroin was down 15 per cent. Overall, the number of drug seizures in England and Wales rose by two per cent to 216,296. Those involving class B substances rose by three per cent and within that category, the number of cannabis seizures also rose by three per cent. In total 3.5 tonnes of cocaine, 1.8 tonnes of heroin, 656,000 doses of ecstasy and 1 tonne of amphetamines were seized.

In addition 41.5 tonnes of herbal cannabis and cannabis resin combined and 612,000 cannabis plants were confiscated.