MI5 puts security advice online

EXPERT advice to help businesses protect themselves against security threats has been published for the first time today on the expanded MI5 website.

The website, www.mi5.gov.uk, now reflects the increased threat from international terrorism. It offers expert security advice businesses and staff in organisations with responsibility for the safety of others.

The information was produced by specialists with knowledge about the capabilities, intentions and operating methods of terrorists.

Visiting the MI5 headquarters, Home Secretary David Blunkett said:- "The risk from terrorism is very real and we have a duty to ensure that individuals and businesses are armed with the information that allows them to take sensible and proportionate steps to protect themselves from new and emerging threats. 

That is why I have undertaken to put as much information into the public domain as possible."

People with information they think might help protect national security can access a secure page on the website in a section called "How You Can Help". The public can also call 020 7930 9000 in confidence.

To build on the co-operation of the Muslim community some sections have been translated into Arabic. Additional languages will be added in due course.

Director General of the Security Service, Eliza Manningham-Buller, said:- "We rely heavily on public assistance and support to do our work effectively and by working together I believe we are up to the challenge of responding to today's security threats."

Extra funding announced in February will see Security Service increase in size by around 50 per cent over the next few years.

£55 MILLION COCAINE SMUGGLERS FOUND GUILTY

FOUR men were found guilty today at Wolverhampton Crown Court of attempting to smuggle 651 kilos of cocaine, following a Customs &
Excise investigation. 

The cocaine, with a street value of £55 million, was concealed in earthmoving machinery, marking the conclusion of Operation Elysian, one of Customs' biggest and most successful drugs investigations.

Customs Minister John Healey MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury said:- "Customs have prevented a huge amount of cocaine reaching the streets of the UK. This latest bust shows how sophisticated Customs must be to match modern drugs gangs, who use increasingly ingenious methods to smuggle drugs into this country".

The guilty men Duncan Newport, 36, company director of Dyffryn Ardudwy, Gwynedd.
Rex Newport, 58, a director of the same plant and Machinery Company and also of Dyffryn Ardudwy, Gwynedd. Mark Reeves, 38, a welder from Blakedown, near Kidderminster and Louis Hillard, 57, associate of the Newports.

Customs' Assistant Chief Investigation Officer Peter Hollier said:- "This was a well organised and determined attempt to smuggle a huge quantity of cocaine into this country. These men went to great lengths to avoid detection, using false names, a variety of vehicles, public telephones, more than a dozen mobile phones and a complex system of codes to cover their tracks. They were well aware of the scale of their criminality."

The four men will be sentenced in June 2004.

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