Authorities responsible for our security are very often criticised for not doing their duty in the way they are expected.

The police, the armed forces, the civil protection department, the customs department and other public entities entrusted with taking collective care of society as a whole are often the target of disrespect and lack of appreciation by the general public, sometimes also by politicians on the opposition benches who are always ready to pick their faults in a bid to take a dig at the government. Their mistakes are highlighted, their omissions condemned, and when two or three officers commit a wrongdoing it is the whole entity that is (wrongly) blamed.

People seem to forget that in each profession, there are so-called bad apples. If one officer has a bad day and does not behave as expected it does not mean that the whole entity is not performing.

What is worse is that when these people do their job, nobody is grateful. The media – and here we take part of the blame – often overlooks the good deeds and it is only some extraordinary story that makes the headlines.

So when something like Monday’s drug bust comes to light, we take the opportunity to congratulate – in this case – the Customs Department and the police for their sterling work towards the community. Drug trafficking is a scourge that affects so many individuals and families and therefore any successful attempt to break it up, especially something of this magnitude, deserves praise.

Almost 11 tonnes of cannabis resin were found hidden in four containers that arrived at Malta Freeport from Syria and were destined to Libya. The containers had been declared as carrying crockery detergent and blowtorches, but Customs Department officers using new scanners realised that there were other items inside – and discovered that the drugs were hidden within the detergent.

The haul has been described as the largest ever to be intercepted in Malta, and the street value was estimated to be around €28.5 million.

What needs to be pointed out is that the discovery of this massive drug haul would not have been possible without the use of new equipment that was recently installed to help the department (apart from, of course, the watchful eyes of the officers involved). This goes to prove that investment is vital to enable these entities to carry out their work in the best way possible. Criminals, in this case drug traffickers, are always seeking new ways to transport their merchandise and it is not easy for the authorities to remain au courant with the criminal world.

The negative side of this story is what we always think when such a haul is discovered – this could only be the tip of the iceberg, and one wonders how many more tonnes of drugs make it to destination without them being intercepted. This thought however should spur the authorities to work even harder than they are doing to make the world a better and safer place.

Given the right tools and the best incentives, they can deliver.