pounds 200m DOPES

THREE men who were convicted of being part of a pounds 200million drug-smuggling network have walked free because of a Customs blunder.

The gang ADMITTED importing at least 12 tons of cannabis into Britain - and were jailed for the crime.

But now it has emerged the case against them was tainted because Customs officials withheld vital evidence about a supergrass.

The witness had told a court that he was not expecting to receive any financial reward for giving evidence. But later it was revealed Customs had discussed a pounds 700,000 payment for his help in putting the drug gang behind bars.

Last week convictions against the men were dramatically quashed.

The blunder is the latest in a string of scandals to engulf HM Customs and Excise - Britain's oldest law enforcement agency.

In the last two years prosecutions against dozens of alleged drug smugglers and fraudsters have had to be abandoned because of the way Customs have conducted cases and withheld evidence that should have been disclosed.

This has led to three separate major corruption probes by different police forces. It is estimated that the organisation has failed to halt losses of at least pounds 10billion of taxpayers' money through fraud alone over the last four years.

The latest case involved a gang responsible for supplying South London criminals with over 12 tonnes of cannabis in 66 shipments over an 18-month period.

Stephen Mee and cousins Francis and Daniel Little pleaded guilty to receiving huge quantities of drugs smuggled in shipments of car parts from Spain and Holland.

The imports were arranged by Stephen Moore and a business partner, who ran a sophisticated smuggling operation charging the drug dealers pounds 15,000 for every 100 kilos.

Profits from the sale of the drugs were shipped back to Europe by the same method for laundering or to pay for more drugs. On one occasion pounds 1million was sent to Holland in a crate. But on arrival the cash had been stolen - apart from a single five pence piece left at the bottom of the box by a humorous thief.

Customs trapped the gang after keeping them and their customers under daily surveillance for nearly three months, in a massive operation involving dozens of undercover officers and sophisticated technical equipment.

The gang was arrested four years ago, and Moore turned supergrass, shopping his partner and the dealers.

In one trial Mee and Francis Little were sentenced to eight years, and Daniel Little got five years. All three pleaded guilty. The cases against three other men collapsed when Moore refused to testify, claiming he had received death threats.

But Customs had failed to disclose details of conversations with Moore talking about a reward of pounds 700,000. Moore had told the trial jury he did not expect to be paid for giving evidence.

The vital document surfaced during a recent Appeal Court hearing at which judges ordered a retrial. It was also disclosed by Customs that Moore had been involved in laundering drug profits, was involved in "significant fraudulent activity", was under investigation by Swiss authorities - and had paid pounds 1million into bank accounts since the case.

At the new hearing last week Customs finally threw in the towel and all prosecutions were abandoned.

The Sunday Mirror can now reveal that one of the officers who debriefed Moore was heavily involved in the London City Bond (LCB) tax evasion fiasco which is now being probed.

The officer is one of at least 16 Customs officials who have been warned their activities and working practices are under scrutiny.

Forty-eight people convicted of duty evasion at LCB - some of whom pleaded guilty - have had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal and other trials have been abandoned.

And at least pounds 2billion pounds of taxpayers' money was lost through frauds that Customs allowed to run for up to two years.

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