Pubdate: Sun, 13 Apr 2003
Source: Scotland On Sunday (UK)
Copyright: 2003 The Scotsman Publications Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/405
Author: Shaikh Azizur Rahman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

FEATHERS FLY AS DRUG TRAFFICKERS TARGET PIGEONS

NEW DELHI -- PAKISTANI drug traffickers are using carrier pigeons to 
smuggle more than UKP60m of heroin each year from Afghanistan.

Traffickers on both sides of the border use flocks of pigeons to carry 
heroin to Pakistan, where many gangs which supply European dealers are based.

Afghan refugees are being paid to carry the pigeons packed in small cages 
back into the border villages in the home country where makeshift drug 
refineries are located in areas controlled by different Afghan warlords.

About 10gs of heroin are stuffed into a bullet-shaped tin capsule which is 
then fastened to a pigeon's leg. Once the birds are released from 
Afghanistan, they take between one and two hours to reach their lofts in 
Pakistan, where the capsules are collected by traffickers.

One Karachi-based anti-drug campaigner, who asked not to be named, said: 
"When the weather is good a pigeon is made to fly almost daily across the 
border.

"In a month, an average Pakistani trafficker, who has between six and eight 
homing pigeons, can smuggle across as much as 2kgs of heroin. This would be 
worth about $300,000 [UKP190,000] in the European market."

He added that the biggest threat to the birds, which can evade anti-drugs 
surveillance along the border, is being attacked by a bird of prey.

Traditionally, low-grade heroin is refined from Afghan opium. According to 
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 50 new heroin 
refineries began operating in eastern Afghanistan alone last year. Some of 
these new refineries are capable of processing high-grade heroin and it is 
believed that most of the heroin is being carried by pigeons.

According to a report compiled by Pakistani intelligence, there are at 
least 300 pigeons currently engaged as heroin carriers in frontier 
Pakistan, carrying about 500kgs of heroin across the border from 
Afghanistan every year.

The semi-autonomous tribal territories where these drug traffickers and 
their pigeon lofts are located, are outside Pakistani federal jurisdiction. 
However, the smugglers still face the death penalty if they are caught.

According to Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force, drugs traffickers have 
adopted a variety of new methods to carry on their trade in the face of 
increased vigilance by the police.

Large, guarded convoys have been replaced by individuals or small groups of 
people who carry across small consignments of heroin from Afghanistan.

Last February, a US State Department report said Afghanistan had retaken 
its place as the world's leading producer of heroin, following the 
overthrow of the Taliban regime which had banned cultivation of opium poppies.

Shipments of Afghan heroin and morphine are routed through Pakistan's 
coastal areas to Turkey via Iran.

 From there local traffickers arrange to send the shipments on to Europe 
and the United States.

It is estimated that 80% of heroin in Europe comes from Afghanistan.

Last month, the head of Pakistan's anti-narcotics task force, Major General 
Zafar Abbas, said heroin production in Afghanistan has been increasing 
since the fall of the Taliban last year.

It is expected to reach more than 4,000 tonnes this year.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jackl