Pubdate: Wed, 26 Jan 2005
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Telegraph Group Limited
Contact:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/114
Authors: Richard Savill and John Steele

'LABOUR HAS FAILED TO STOP YARDIES'

A retiring chief constable has attacked the Government's failure to prevent 
violent foreign criminals returning to Britain after being deported.

Steve Pilkington, 56, who retires from Avon and Somerset Constabulary 
today, said he was fed up with having to arrest and convict the same 
offenders repeatedly because of lax border controls.

"What really concerns me is the way we allow violent, dangerous criminals 
to just walk through our borders.

"It has damaged our communities, damaged the prospects of our young people 
and it has destroyed lives, particularly through crack and cocaine."

In an interview with the BBC's Points West in Bristol, Mr Pilkington, a 
police officer for 32 years, did not specify the nationality of offenders.

However, it was understood his remarks referred to Jamaican drug dealers, 
who have been blamed for a rise in violent crimes, including shootings, in 
parts of Bristol.

Similar violence, mostly linked to the crack cocaine trade, has been seen 
in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham and other cities, involving 
some Jamaican Yardie gangsters and British-born criminals linked to them.

Of the 9,000 foreign nationals in jails in England and Wales at the end of 
September, about 2,000 were from Jamaica. The women's prison population is 
dominated by Jamaican "mules" - drugs couriers - but many men have also 
been convicted.

The Home Office has deported criminals to Jamaica, where some have been 
released and returned to drug trafficking, travelling between Jamaica and 
Britain on false documents.

Highly-addictive crack cocaine has increased street crime and violence 
between gangs dealing in it. Jamaica's gun culture has become entrenched in 
some inner cities.

Mr Pilkington said: "Deported criminals returning to Britain is a failure 
of border control. It is a failure of intelligence and I think it is a 
failure of resourcing.

"I am simply fed up with having to catch and convict the same people over 
and over again for similar offences.

"Once they have entered our country, abused our laws and abused our 
hospitality and they are convicted and deported, that should be it. And 
they should not be able to get back into the country."

In 2003, for an eight-week period, Mr Pilkington put armed police on the 
streets of Bristol for the first time, amid heightened tension between 
rival drugs gangs.

Police blamed an influx of Jamaican drug dealers for an increase in violent 
crime in some areas of the city, including the St Pauls area.
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