384 • MUTT AND JEFF
Vichy regime, but the evidence upon which they had relied, four in-
criminating letters purporting to have come from General Rozoy’s
Vichy consulate, turned out to be forgeries and Muselier was re-
leased, together with two French security officers, Collin and How-
ard, who had been detained as fellow conspirators, with a personal
apology fromWinston Churchill.
Although Muselier was wrongly suspected of having betrayed the
disastrous Anglo-French attack on Dakar to Rozoy, he was closely
associated withAndre ́Labarthe, a fiercely republican political in-
triguer, a lifelong Communist and, asvenonalater proved, an active
Soviet spy in London in 1941.MUTT AND JEFF.SeeMOE, JOHN.
–N–NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM SECURITY OFFICE
(NCTSO).This liaison unit, staffed bySpecial Branchofficers, pro-
vides the link betweenMI5headquarters in London and thecounter-
terroristsecurity advisers in each Special Branch.
NATIONAL CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICE (NCIS).
Created in April 1992 to coordinate criminal intelligence collection
and distribution nationally across the 52 provincial police forces in
Great Britain, NCIS was initially chaired by a formerNorthern Ire-
landsecurity minister, Sir John Wheeler; in 2002, he was replaced
by a failed Labour party parliamentary candidate and barrister, Neil
Bailey. Staffed by personnel seconded from the police,MI5, theSe-
cret Intelligence Service, Customs and Excise, and the Immigration
Service, NCIS accommodates the representatives of Europol and In-
terpol and initiates investigations for the National Crime Squad, has
a remit that covers organized crime, drug trafficking, and people
smuggling and is based in an anonymous building on an industrial
estate behind the Albert Embankment. In 2004 NCIS was absorbed
into theSerious and Organised Crime Agency.
NATIONAL PORTS OFFICE (NPO).This coordinating body based
at theSpecial Branchheadquarters at New Scotland Yard operates