Radar plan to hit drugs trade

Ciaran Giles, SPAIN has activated a costly system of radars and extra-sensitive cameras with night vision along its southern coast in a bid to crack down on trafficking of immigrants and drugs between Morocco and Spain, the government said yesterday.

The 142million Integrated External Vigilance System will enable Civil Guard paramilitary coast patrols to detect and monitor vessels some 20km away from the Spanish coast, the Interior Ministry said.

The ministry said the system was the first of its kind in Europe and was aimed at combating the clandestine trafficking of thousands of would-be immigrants from Morocco to Spain, normally aboard packed, single-engine rubber boats.