New £350k patrol boat to help fight offshore crime

Neptune is equipped with a long-range infrared camera and an underwater drone

Police have launched a new £350,000 patrol boat to combat criminals behind drug smuggling, illegal immigration and other maritime crime in Devon and Cornwall.

Neptune replaces older inflatable boats allowing officers to operate in harsher conditions and for longer, said the Devon and Cornwall force.

The 36ft (11m) vessel, which was paid for by the Home Office, is equipped with a long-range infrared camera and an underwater drone.

The vessel will also be used to deter illegal diving around historic wrecks and war graves, and will be used for water-based searches, said police.

'Serious vessel'

Chief Constable James Vaughan said at a launch in Plymouth said police were "seeing threats from serious and organised crime groups involved in immigration and modern slavery".

"Intelligence suggests that people smugglers and drug smugglers are coming further down the south coast as activity intensifies around the Channel coasts," he said.

"It has been pushed down into Sussex and Dorset and Devon and Cornwall.

"It's important, which is why the Home Office has funded vessels, both here and in other south coast police forces, to help us work together."

He hailed Neptune as a "serious vessel giving us both offshore and inshore capability" across 700 miles of coastline and 4,000 miles of rivers."

"Having this capability helps us work with Border Force, the National Crime Agency, and regional units to tackle these national and international threats," he said.