Pizzas galore!

Inside Soca, rumours initially circulated that Agent T had sold the memory stick to criminals — a theory that was soon discounted. The Evans inquiry concluded the loss was a genuine mistake, a ruling backed by those who know the agent well.

“She’s a lovely girl but a bit daft and scatterbrained — the sort of person you could imagine forgetting her handbag on a bus,” said one former officer who has worked with her.

Evans’s anxiety to keep the affair out of the public eye is understandable. There is already widespread criticism of Soca, some of whose derring-do operations in hostile places are considered “frankly amateurish” by more experienced agencies such as MI5, MI6 and the DEA.

When it was set up in 2006 Soca was heralded as “Britain’s FBI”, but critics claim it has failed to deliver. They accuse Evans and Sir Stephen Lander, the former MI5 boss who is Soca’s chairman, of trying to emulate MI5, using “intelligence-led” operations instead of policing. Lower ranking police and customs officers question the focus on Bogota rather than Birmingham.

One of the agency’s sternest critics had been Terry Byrne, former director-general for law enforcement at Customs and Excise, whose proposals in 2003 led to Soca’s creation. Byrne said the agency was failing and its performance was dismal. It often claimed large seizures but most of those were destined for America. “The agency is claiming to have seized 84 tons of cocaine across the world, yet the availability of cocaine in the UK is at an all-time high and street prices at an all-time low,” he said.

The loss of the memory stick will be seized on by Soca’s critics as further evidence of incompetence. Russ Corn, a former special forces officer who is now deputy chief executive of Diligence, a commercial intelligence business, said: “Soca does some good work but this individual indiscretion is beyond belief. Sensitive intelligence should be treated with the utmost respect. To download it on to a memory stick and then lose it is incredibly stupid.”

The incident will be acutely embarrassing for Jacqui Smith, the under-fire home secretary, who is ultimately responsible for anti-drug efforts.

Soca reacted with alarm when The Sunday Times tracked down Agent T last week to seek her version of events. In what appeared to be a damage-limitation operation, it circulated a press release boasting about seizing 600kg of cocaine in an undercover operation masterminded by its South America drugs team. The operation was last July, although Soca says the narcotics were publicly burnt “as a warning” to drug traffickers last week.

The agency yesterday confirmed the data loss but said it had happened soon after Soca had been set up “while staff were still working to the data handling policies of precursor agencies”.

A spokeswoman said: “Soca has introduced its own clearly defined data handling and security policies. During the year to March 2009 — the first year we have been required to report any breaches — there wasn’t a single breach of personal or sensitive data by Soca staff.”

Insiders insist the incident was more recent. Significantly, negotiations over Agent T’s future are continuing. The Soca spokeswoman said: “A mediation process is under way with the officer concerned.”

Responding to messages left at her home in Slough, Agent T said in a brief phone call that the claims about the extent of the damage done were “ridiculous”. She may remain on Soca’s payroll for now, but it is hard to imagine she will work in such a sensitive field again.

Additional reporting: Kevin Dowling

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