Britain's anti-doping agency is stepping up intelligence operations to weed out drug cheats ahead of the 2012 London Olympics.
Former police officers have been employed by U.K. Anti-Doping to investigate networks and individuals providing banned substances to athletes.
''As our people get more technically proficient, more sophisticated, then actually you will start to see cases coming out that have been on the basis of intelligence rather than the old-fashioned way of just tests,'' UKAD chairman David Kenworthy told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Kenworthy said UKAD's intelligence unit was set up 18 months ago and is getting more and more useful information.
''They are getting more used to the way of working,'' he said.
The latest move to clamp down on doping at the games comes in the week organizers marked the 500-day countdown to the Olympics and launched online ticket sales.
British Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said doping is the ''most serious threat'' to the popularity of the games.
''If people buying ... tickets cease to believe that what they are paying quite large sums of money for is anything other than a fair contest then the integrity of the games will be lost,'' he said at a World Sports Law Report doping conference.
Officials expect to conduct 5,000 doping tests at the London Games, compared to 4,500 at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
''If there are any cheats out there in the Olympic movement I want them caught,'' Robertson said. ''To tackle this problem, we will have to undertake a number of actions, from stemming the flow of doping materials from the source, breaking down the supply and traffic chains.''
UKAD set up a confidential hotline last year to receive tips on suspicious activities.
''A lot of intelligence comes from within the sporting community itself and the hotline that people phone us on,'' said Kenworthy, a former chief constable with a 35-year career in law enforcement. ''It might not be used very frequently, but the stuff we get is good quality.''
Officials are virtually powerless, though, to prevent athletes from buying banned substances online.
''We've got Internet access where you can buy something from southeast Asia and have something delivered in a week,'' UKAD chief executive Andy Parkinson added in a separate interview. ''It is a concern for us because you don't know what you are buying and the availability of it.''
