Pubdate: Tue, 29 Aug 2000
Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN)
Copyright: 2000, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
Contact:  PO Box 59038, Knoxville, TN 37950-9038
Website: http://www.knoxnews.com/
Forum: http://forums.knoxnews.com/cgi-bin/WebX?knoxnews
Authors: Ewen Macaskill and Rob Evans, The Guardian

EUROPE FAILS TO STEM RISING DRUG TIDE, DEA SAYS

LONDON - Europe is losing the war against drugs, according to intelligence 
reports from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The reports - obtained by the Guardian - reveal dramatic increases in drug 
production - from poppy crops used to make heroin in Afghanistan, to the 
manufacture of ecstasy in the Netherlands - and police forces stretched 
thin while trying to cope with Europe's porous borders.

Drug traffickers have been so successful that they have compiled huge 
hidden stockpiles throughout western and eastern Europe to ensure an 
uninterrupted supply.

An increase in drug seizures throughout Europe and Asia is interpreted not 
as effective policing but as a sign of increasing volumes. The DEA is 
especially critical of the policies of the Dutch government, expressing 
skepticism about the effectiveness of its liberal approach.

It describes the Netherlands as "perhaps the most important drug 
trafficking and transiting area in Europe." Trends in the drug trade, it 
says, undermine the Dutch government's policy of discriminating between 
"soft" and "hard" drugs.

DEA reports on 10 countries, from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, 
Albania, Serbia-Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the 
Netherlands, were obtained by the Guardian during the past six months 
through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

They provide the most up-to-date information on the changing supply routes 
from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Europe. The traditional route through the 
Balkans was disrupted by conflict throughout the 1990s, particularly the 
war in Kosovo last year. While variations on the route, using Croatia and 
Macedonia, have been adopted, much of that trade has shifted to the north.

Routes that emerged after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 are now 
witnessing the biggest volume of drug trafficking, especially through the 
Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.

The DEA emphasizes that the lifting of border restrictions within the 
European Union has made life easier for drug traffickers.

In one especially pessimistic passage, the DEA concludes that drug 
traffickers have built up stockpiles that allow them to ensure smooth 
supplies: "In the last few years, heroin has been increasingly stockpiled 
in some western and eastern European locations, enabling west European 
travelers to take delivery of the drug closer to home.

"Turkish heroin trafficking organizations work in collusion with nationals 
from eastern Europe who have established heroin depots to store large 
quantities of heroin and release it on demand. These storage facilities 
ensure a steady, uninterrupted drug supply to west European consumers."

A report on the Netherlands, dated June 2000, says that Amsterdam is 
"rather unique in that every type of drug-smuggling and distribution 
organization is represented for strategic and logistical purposes. It is an 
organizational center, a central brokerage point and a safe haven."

Among the groups active in drug trafficking in Amsterdam are Turks, 
Colombians, Kurds, Chinese, Nigerians, Israelis, Moroccans, British and Irish.

The DEA estimates that 75 percent of the heroin arriving in the Netherlands 
is for onward shipment throughout Europe and North America.

The heroin trail begins in Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of 
opium. Although a reduction in the amount of land being cultivated for 
poppies is predicted for this year, the trend in the volume of opium 
production has been steadily upwards.

Production has risen by 33 percent in the past three years, according to 
U.S. estimates, and 80 percent of illegal opiate products in Europe come 
from Afghanistan.
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