-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BRITISH intelligence service MI5 has singled out South Africa as one of the "most important" conduits for South American drugs into Western Europe in a confidential report submitted to the British Foreign Office and handed to the South African police. The report, submitted late last year, suggests that poor border controls and the rapid increase of illegal immigrants -- especially Nigerians -- has catapulted South Africa to the top of the drug-peddling world. Senior South African police sources said this week the British report is based on intelligence sources as well as extensive interviews with convicted drug smugglers arrested in Britain en route from South Africa. The proposed new laws will give police and the Department of Home Affairs powers similar to the United States Immigration and Naturalisation Service. Authorities will be able to raid premises looking for illegal aliens, and the deportation of aliens involved in crime will be streamlined in order to crack down on foreign career criminals. Top sources in the police said this week that for some time Western intelligence agencies have been warning the South African police that poor border controls are encouraging major drug cartels, including the feared Colombian Cali cartel, to move their bases to South Africa. The sources said that the proposed new Bill regulating illegal aliens is apparently inspired by the huge number of complaints the government has been receiving from intelligence agencies about unchecked drug and arms smuggling.
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