Prince William nearly became his royal "highness" in a different sense today when he walked into a room where the air was thick with the smell of cannabis.
The Duke of Cambridge was being shown around a room jam-packed with seized drugs near Heathrow airport when he joked: “We had better get out before we have a drugs test!”
The drugs were locked away in a special locked room full of other seized contraband near the airport.
As he walked in, Border Force officer Steve Harrington told him: “Excuse the smell.”
The lock-up was full of packages of herbal cannabis and other drugs, as well as seized weapons and wildlife products. “These are drugs we get here, large seizures of cannabis. It is coming from the United States, where it is legal in some states.”
As they left William made his joke about the drugs test, and added: “It’s quite a good strong smell.”
The tour of the lock-up was part of a visit to see the Royal Mail’s International Logistics Centre to see the fight against the illegal wildlife trade in action.
Mr Harrington said the room contained 545 drugs packages, as well as 1,657 seized weapons, including stun devices and knives, all seized in the last month.
As he was shown the weapons, which filled one wall of the room, the duke said: “That is a staggering amount of weapons in one month. That is quite shocking."
They also get MDMA from the Netherlands, some cocaine, and the occasional package of heroin from Pakistan.
Although the smell of cannabis was highly noticeable, Mr Harrington said: “I’m fine with it. Some people don’t like it. But I don’t spend all day in here.”
Clive Perry, the senior manager with Border Force who showed the duke around the seizures, said: “I think my officers have got immune to it in there, to be honest. We process it and move it out as quick as we can. He did comment on it – it’s something you can’t ignore. I think the smell of paint in there had gone, because we had it decorated for his arrival, so the cannabis has overwhelmed it.”
He said the centre, which just deals with packages under 2.2kg, had seized hundreds of kilos of cannabis since April. “We get so much. The volume of stuff coming through the post is quite high.”
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Cannabis and other drugs such as cocaine can be spotted by trained staff, he said. Royal Mail staff spot suspicious packages, and Border Force officers put them through X-ray scanners.
“The work we do with Royal Mail – we give them key words to look for when they are looking through the mail. They put those packets to one side, and then we would screen it and find it.
“It is all about looking at X-ray images to see what the powders look like. The prime example is just birthday cards with a dealer bag inside. It’s easy to identify with an X-ray image.”
The duke was visiting the centre to highlight the work of the Royal Mail as a member of his United for Wildlife Taskforce which combats the illegal wildlife trade.
The duke was shown four packages seized this week – two from Thailand, and two from Britain intended for China and Hong Kong.
One of the packages from Britain contained several ivory artefacts, including a pair of binoculars, and a snakeskin which is believed to have been from a rock python. “I would not like to have met the snake that was wearing that,” said the duke. “It is amazing what you find, it really is.”
The seized weapons he was shown included an extendable baton and a pair of knuckledusters. Mr Perry told the duke: “The other weekend we had 500 knuckledusters in one go. Nasty weapon. We get a lot of flick knives as well.”
He was also shown the skull of an Arctic wolf, which is likely to be used as a training aid.
Weapons are held for one month and then recycled, while drugs are held for a month and then incinerated.
