Customs and Immigration Service
Extension of Relevant Articles of the Extradition (Jersey) Law, 2004 to customs officers
in the Customs and Immigration Service
Introduction
As a result of the Service’s joint working with the DNRED (French Customs), officers in the Service have been involved in a number of drug trafficking operations whereby the French criminal justice authorities have subsequently extradited local individuals involved in the operation. As customs officers currently have no powers under the Extradition Law, this work has had to be undertaken by police officers.
It is the view of the Customs and Immigration management team that as these were customs operations, officers in the Service would have been best placed to assist the French authorities in these circumstances. This could be achieved by extending the relevant police powers under the Law to officers in the Service as is allowed under Article 119 of the Extradition Law.
Background
Article 119 of the Extradition (Jersey) Law, 2004 states:
“The Minister for Home Affairs may make an Order providing that any provision of this Law that applies in relation to police officers or to persons arrested by police officers shall apply (with such modifications, if any, as may be specified in the Order) to officers of the Impôts or to persons arrested by officers of the Impôts”.
It is the belief of the Customs and Immigration management team that it would be appropriate to draft such an Order.
The main reason for this being that there have been 4 occasions in recent years when following successful joint drug smuggling operations with the DNRED, the French criminal justice authorities have looked to extradite Jersey based individuals involved in the operations back to France.
In such situations customs officers have been unable to assist the French authorities as they did not have the necessary powers to do so. As a result police officers have been required to assist, but they had no initial knowledge of the operation and have had to be appraised by customs officers of the background to the case.
If the police powers were extended to customs officers, then officers in this Service would be in a position to see the investigation through to a conclusion and assist the French authorities.
The necessary work to identify the relevant Articles that need to be extended has been completed by the Director, Law Enforcement and the Articles are listed at Appendix 1.
The Order will also need to identify the equivalent ranks of customs officer where the Law refers to an act or thing to be done by a police officer. These will be as follows:
Inspector – Senior Officer
Chief Officer of Police – Agent of the Impôts
States of Jersey Police (Barry Taylor) have been advised that it is proposed that the relevant powers under this Law be extended to Customs Officers.
Recommendation
The Minister is recommended to authorise the Director, Law Enforcement to liaise with the Law Draftsman and request that an Order is drafted to extend the relevant Articles to customs officers.
Steven Le Marquand
Director, Law Enforcement
Customs and Immigration Service
11 May 2010
Appendix 1
Articles of the Extradition (Jersey) Law, 2004 which require extension to
customs officers by virtue of an Order under Article 119 of the said Law
Article 1 Interpretation
Article 8 Arrest Warrant following extradition request (Paras 5 & 6 only)
Article 9 Person arrested under Article 8 (Paras 1, 2, 3 only)
Article 10 Provisional Warrant (Paras 6 & 7 only)
Article 11 Person arrested under provisional warrant (Paras 1, 2, 3 only)
Article 80 Search and Seizure Warrants
Article 81 Production Orders
Article 82 Requirements for making of production order
Article 83 Electronically stored information
Article 84 Special procedure material and excluded material
Article 85 Entry and search to effect arrest
Article 86 Entry and search of premises on arrest
Article 87 Search of Person on arrest (Paras 1-9 only)
Article 88 Entry and search of premises after arrest (Paras 1-11 only)
Article 89 Fingerprints and samples (Paras 2 & 3 only)
Article 90 Searches and examinations
Article 92 Other treatment and rights
Article 93 Delivery of seized property
Article 94 Codes of Practice
Article 95 Reasonable force
Article 112 Custody (Para 5 only)