Leeds-Bradford Airport was today branded a commercial outlet for drugs after it was revealed seizures had risen steeply in the last year.

A Customs union official blamed a decision to pull officers out of the airport to a base five miles away at Lawnswood.

Customs officers travel from that base to operate at Leeds-Bradford and carry out raids.

Jim O'Neill branch secretary of the Public and Commercial Service Union, which covers the airport, said the amount of cannabis and soft drugs passing through Leeds-Bradford had increased five fold on the previous year. Mr O'Neill said large amounts of money believed to be associated with drugs were also going through the airport.

He said the union was campaigning with the support of Bradford North MP Terry Rooney to get a permanent Customs presence in the airport.

He said there had been little drug trafficking in Leeds-Bradford in the past because it was small and difficult to pass through unobserved.

But there had been general realisation there were fewer officers on the beat and problems had shot up.

Nationally, Customs officers seized record amounts of heroin and other hard drugs last year - and helped authorities in other countries find and confiscate drugs worth £540 million, it was announced today.

The Customs and Excise service said officers recovered 1,747kg of heroin with a street value of more than £145 million - a tonne more than in 1996, according to figures released today.

Cocaine seizures also showed a big increase as the total value of drug seizures in 1997 went up by more than a quarter, to a street value of £655 million.

Some estimates suggest that the seizure statistics represent only 15% of the actual flow of drugs.

A flood of cheap heroin on the market has been blamed for the drug increasingly becoming the first choice for young people.

About 80% of the heroin shipped to Britain comes via the Balkan route through Turkey, according to customs officials.

Turkish gangs dominate the British heroin trade and have been responsible for flooding the market.

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