G.F. 323 0003230
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be undesirable to create a category of criminal offences against which all the existing law enforcement agencies could not take action; and no country is known to have
done this.
31.
Another possible arrangement would be for the Preventive Service to be incorporated into the Police Force with the status, say, of a Police District. This has been rejected primarily because the major excise and revenue collecting functions of the Service cannot be related to Police duties: it collects some HK$470 million per annum. Other substantial difficulties would also arise, not the least being the reaction to such a transfer of the individual officer.
32.
A third possible arrangement is a considerably enhanced Preventive Service presence in the Narcotics Bureau at all levels, taking a direct part in the acquisition and collation of intelligence and the investigation of drug crimes. However, the real need is for more intelligence about the major organisers of the illicit drug trade: only when it is available will it be possible to take effective action against their syndicates, and it is such action that is required. They are very security conscious and it is considered the Police alone must have this task.
Any other
arrangement would be insecure. The primary aim of the Narcotics Bureau should thus be to neutralise their
operations. It should be given all necessary assistance by other Branches of the Force with specialised expertise
or resources.
33.
Another argument against all these arrangements is that any of them might increase the risk of corruption. Corruption arising from the illicit drug trade already extends from Thailand (whence all Hong Kong's raw opium and morphine base is exported) throughout South East Asia to Hong Kong. Its precise scale is uncertain. But as
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