POLICE, The UK Border Agency, coastguards and port authorities are to join forces to crack down on illegal seaside smuggling.

They have launched a new initiative called Coast Watch Wales — a single point of contact for boat users and coastal communities to provide tip-offs about suspicious activity.

It is hoped the new co-operative will make Wales's 750-mile coastline watertight from drug barons, human traffickers, terrorists and illegal goods.

Deputy Chief Constable Andy Edwards said the number of isolated beaches along South West Wales made it an ideal location for "clandestine criminal activity".

He said: "This is a significant first for Wales, showing how everyone concerned with our coastline and the maritime community can work together to safeguard our national borders.

"There has not been a significant rise in the number of incidents to prompt this scheme, but we want to take a proactive approach rather than a reactive one."

The scheme was formally launched yesterday at Swansea Dock, with senior officers briefed about how the link-up would work.

Police, the UK Border Agency and HM Coastguard will share intelligence with one another via the Coast Watch Wales framework.

Marc Owen, UK Border Force director for Wales, likened the scheme to the old Neighbourhood Watch system.

"Now we're asking maritime communities to help us protect the Welsh coastline by making it simpler to report suspicious activity," he said.

"The UK Border Agency works 365 days a year to prevent illegal immigration and smuggling at the Welsh coast — which forms a large part of the UK's border."

The kinds of activity the authorities are asking people to keep an eye out for include night-time signalling between vessels at sea and people on the shore, as well as items being attached to marker buoys — a trick used by drug dealers known as "letter-boxing".

In 2008, several batches of cocaine, with a street value of £2 million, were washed up on West Wales beaches.

Coast Watch Wales is also part of an ongoing counter-terrorism operative.

Deputy Chief Constable Edwards said that while Wales's terrorist threat level was low, there had been previous operations in recent years such as Operation Pebbel — which led to the arrests of Real IRA members in Pembrokeshire.

"There is also a potential target to the critical national infrastructure, such as the oil refinery in Milford Haven," he added.

A dedicated Coast Watch Wales website and email facility has been set up for people to pass on information, 24 hours a day, about anything out of the ordinary. The intelligence will then be assessed and investigated by the Coast Watch Wales team.

Police and the UK Border Agency added that the new scheme would be self-funded — with the costs being described as "minimal".

ben.wright@swwmedia.co.uk