Soldiers dismissed over drugs

Seven soldiers were dismissed from the regiment on Friday

Eleven soldiers in the Welsh Guards have tested positive for taking drugs, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

Seven of the servicemen have already been dismissed from the regiment. The case against four more is under review.

A spot check by the army's drug testing unit found five soldiers in the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards had taken Class A drugs.

The infantry regiment is based at RAF St Athan in south Wales. This year it completed a tour in southern Iraq.

BBC Wales understands that seven of the soldiers admitted taking drugs when challenged last Monday with the results of tests.

They were dismissed from the base on Friday.

There is no suggestion that this behaviour is reflected across the Welsh Guards MoD statement

The Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, Lt Col Ben Bathurst, said the tests were a routine part of army life.

"They've been going on for 7 or 8 years now. They are always random but regular enough for all of us to know we cannot avoid them."

He said that dismissing soldiers immediately was not automatic procedure, but in this case he felt it was appropriate.

"My view is that drug use is so incompatible with army life. We depend on fitness, alertness and teamwork, and it just does not mix in.

"The reason I dismissed all seven who admitted it straight away, is that there are no second chances.

"They all know the rules. They all know my policy on zero tolerance so they had to go."

'Operational effectiveness'

The Welsh Guards was founded 90 years ago. Prince Charles is its colonel.

The 550-strong regiment has been based in Wales since 2003, when it moved to the RAF base near Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. Recent tours also include Bosnia and Northern Ireland.

An MoD spokesman said the whole unit had been checked as part of the army's drug testing programme.

He said: "There is no suggestion that this behaviour is reflected across the Welsh Guards which recently completed a successful operational tour of duty in Iraq in which they demonstrated their operational effectiveness."