Cocaine worth £6 million may be smuggled into Gatwick airport each week on planes from Jamaica.

The British High Commissioner on the island estimates one passenger in ten arriving at Gatwick is carrying the drug.

It's shocking that traffickers are tempting, or forcing, naive and frightened people to undertake their dirty work.

No wonder Sussex Police are calling on their Caribbean counterparts to be more vigilant in stopping this lucrative trade.

But if the Jamaican authorities won't act, British customs officers and police are entitled to take a tough line against drug smugglers.

British Airways, which operates four flights a week into Gatwick from the island's capital Kingston, must also be more vigilant in checking both passengers and their baggage.

Jamaica is a poor island suffering from social problems. But there is no excuse for organised drug smuggling on this scale.

The message needs to get out to the drug barons, and the passengers they are using as carriers, that this route simply will not work.

Evidence also must be presented to the Jamaican police that gives them high chances of catching and convicting the culprits.