On Thursday, Prince William visited a special locked room of seized contraband near Heathrow Airport, London as part of a visit to the see the Royal Mail’s International Logistics Centre to witness the fight against illegal wildlife trade first hand.
According to People, William was told by Border Force officer Steve Harrington to “Excuse the smell,” upon entering the room but five minutes later the royal announced, “We had better get out before we have a drug test!”
Speaking on the volume of dugs in the lock-up, Harrington explained, “These are drugs we get here, large seizures of cannabis. It is coming from the United States, where it is legal in some states.”
When William left the room he said, “It’s quite a good strong smell.”
Packages of MDMA also come in from the Netherlands along with some cocaine and heroin from Pakistan. Clive Perry, the senior manager with Border Force, informed William that the centre had seized hundred of pounds of cannabis since April, saying, “We get so much. The volume of stuff coming through the post is quite high.”
Perry also said, “I think my officers have got immune to it in there, to be honest. We process is and move it out as quick as we can. [William] did comment on it – it’s something you can’t ignored. I think the smell of paint in there had gone, because we had decorated for his arrival, so the cannabis has overwhelmed it.”
Packages of drugs can be spotted by trained staff, according to Perry. Royal Mail staff spot the supicious packages and then Border Force officers run them through X-ray scanners.
“The work we do with Royal Mail — we give them key words to look for when they are looking through the mail. They put those packets to one side, and then we would screen it and find it,” he explained. “It is all about looking at X-ray images to see what the powders look like. The prime example is just birthday cards with a dealer bag inside. It’s easy to identify with an X-ray image.”
The lock-up was full of 545 drugs packages and 1657 seized weapons – knives and stun guns included – that had been confiscated in the past month. When showed the wall of weapons, William said, “That’s a staggering amount of weapons in one month. That is quite shocking.”
William was shown a number of the weapons including a pair of knucklebusters and an extendable baton.
“The other week we had 500 knucklebusters in one go. Nast weapon. We get a lot of flick knives as well,” explained Perry.
As a member of his United for Wildlife Taskforce – which combats illegal wildlife trade – the Duke of Cambridge was shown two seized packages from Thailand and two packages from Britain intended for Hong Kong and China.
One of the packages seized from Britain contained a pair of binoculars, several ivory artifacts, and a rock python snakeskin. He was also shown the skull of an Arctic wolf.
Drugs in the lock-up are held for a month before being incinerated, while weapons are also held for a month and then recycled.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
