Friday,
15th Dec, 2000
Shadow Trade
Just how far has the illegal
drugs trade achieved an economic grip? As part of the World
Service special coverage on drugs, Phillip Fiske traces the
global narco-economic chain.
If
I hadn't seen the documentary proof myself I probably wouldn't
believe it. But facts are facts - and the Iranian anti-drugs
police must do their job no matter what. In recent years, they
have witnessed the development of a new breed of drug smugglers
- smugglers so brazen that even when caught red-handed they
refuse to respond to the stern enquiries of the authorities.
If questioned, they simply gaze doe-eyed into the faces of their
interrogators, and say nothing. Those charged with intercepting
these unrepentant smugglers describe them as 'narco-caravans'.
To the rest of us they are just plain old camels.
Narco-caravans
Camels have become one of the drug traffickers'
most compliant allies in the business of transporting drugs.
Large groups of the animals are loaded with opium or heroin
in Afghanistan, given a firm slap on the backside and directed
across the Iranian border unaccompanied. Once they are safely
over the frontier (and providing there are no soldiers around
to complicate matters), members of the same trafficking gang
emerge from hiding places in the hills and relieve the unknowing
dupes of their illegal burden. If there happen to be any police
around, the traffickers wait until the coast is clear. If the
'narco-caravans' are intercepted, the traffickers can comfort
themselves with the thought that there's little danger of winding
up in court.
Direct Routes
It may be easy to make light of such matters,
but the drugs trade in Iran is a deadly serious business. In
recent years, almost 3,000 Iranian police and soldiers have
died in the war against drugs, many of them killed in skirmishes
with heavily armed traffickers on the Eastern border with Afghanistan.
Geography has placed an unfortunate burden on Iran. It provides
the most direct overland route for regionally produced heroin
and opium bound for the lucrative European market. And while
both Iran and Pakistan have had some success in reducing opium
cultivation, the spectre of drugs continues to cast a dark shadow
over the region. The United Nations estimates that Afghanistan
produces about three-quarters of the world's opium. In 1999,
about 4,600 tons were harvested in Afghanistan, twice the previous
year's harvest, and enough raw material to make 460 tons of
heroin, with a potential street value in London or New York
of about $90 billion. The profitable nature of such a trade,
particularly in such an underdeveloped region of the world,
makes it an extreme temptation both for potential traffickers,
and in Afghanistan's case, for the government itself.
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| 'The
United Nations estimates that Afghanistan produces
about three-quarters of the world's opium.'
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Afghanistan
Twenty years of civil war has laid waste
to Afghanistan. Much of the country's infrastructure has vanished.
Those roads and irrigation systems which remain are woefully
inadequate. For the Taliban-led government, which now controls
around 85% of the country, the economic temptation of the drugs
trade seems to have proved too much. While it makes great show
of ordering opium farmers to reduce their poppy crops, there
is evidence that the government is far from opposed to opium
cultivation. Taliban officials have even admitted levying a
ten per cent tax on opium production. For a government, which
has very few sources of tax revenue, income from drugs is one
of the few available means of funding the continuing civil war.
Pakistan
Tragically, it is other countries which must
pay the penalty for the Taliban's tolerance. While there is
an opiate abuse problem in Afghanistan itself, it pales beside
that of neighbouring countries. Pakistan, one of only three
countries to officially acknowledge Taliban rule, has been among
the hardest hit. Government surveys suggest there are about
1.5 million heroin addicts in Pakistan - a considerable strain
on an already fragile nation. Iran too has suffered - in a country
of 60 million inhabitants, a recent government report suggested
there are about 1.2 million regular drug users. Ironically,
the Iranian military's commitment to the War on Drugs may have
contributed to a rise in local drug abuse. There are signs that
the successful disruption of the drugs route towards Europe
may mean that drugs are spending more time in Iran, and are
therefore more freely available locally.
Eradicating The Drug Trade
The drugs issue in South-west Asia is, of course, a major concern
for the international community. Yet it is only one concern
among many for those charged with eradicating the illicit trade.
For policymakers surveying the global picture, the outlook can
be intimidating. The statistics are truly frightening: conservative
estimates suggest the international drugs trade is worth $400
billion every year, a huge slice of global economic output.
And in those countries which have succumbed to the trade's temptations,
conventional government can become almost impossible - drug-related
violence in Colombia, the world's number one cocaine manufacturer,
has cost the lives of four presidential candidates, 200 judges
and 1,000 policemen.
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| 'Drug-related
violence in Colombia has cost the lives of four
presidential candidates, 200 judges and 1,000 policemen'
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United Nations Drug Control
Programme
Despite such a gloomy picture, those determined to combat the
international drugs trade are confident that the cause is not
yet lost. In February 1998, Pino Arlacchi, head of the United
Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), stated his ambition
to eradicate all cultivation of illicit drugs within ten years.
Reckless though such an ambition might seem, two years on Arlacchi
is still hopeful:
'Many member states are more optimistic than us. They think
they can eradicate drug crops in less than ten years so I was
not too ambitious, quite the contrary… Drugs are a human phenomenon…
there is nothing metaphysical about drugs so we can substantially
reduce consumption of drugs and we can really eliminate the
production of drugs. I see nothing impossible in it.'
Arlacchi's fighting talk is encouraging - and symptomatic of
his organisation's determination. The UNDCP's major policy contribution
to the global anti-drugs effort has been two-fold. Firstly,
it has encouraged and facilitated regional co-operation in anti-trafficking
measures - countries appear more willing to work together to
disrupt the trade, where in the past they tended to consider
the illicit drug issue a national rather than international
concern. Secondly, it has advocated the pursuit of what it calls
'demand strategies' as well as 'supply strategies' - countries
are motivated to educate and assist drug users, not just to
arrest and imprison drug dealers and traffickers.
Drug Producer Nations
Such policies appear to be working. For decades Peru and Bolivia
have been two of the world's top producers of illicit coca leaf
(the raw material for cocaine). Thanks to successful national
strategies the Peruvian government now claims all local coca
cultivation will cease within three years. The Bolivian government
believes it can eradicate illicit cultivation within just one
year - a success no United Nations official could have hoped
for even ten years ago. It is countries like Peru, Bolivia,
Iran and Pakistan which have traditionally been cast as the
villains in the global debate on drug abuse. The developed world
has tended to lay blame at the feet of the so-called 'drug producer'
nations - the US even has a process whereby it publicly 'certifies'
nations according to the degree of co-operation those nations
give to American anti-drugs strategies. Such magisterial attitudes
are increasingly unhelpful, particularly when many countries
are achieving successes in curbing their own illicit drug production.
Of course, there are governments like that in Afghanistan who
are uncooperative with international anti-drug initiatives,
but these are already the exception.
Supply Meets Demand
The developing nations, for their part, argue that the problem
is as much the responsibility of the so-called 'consumer' nations
as it is their own. After all, the only reason drug cultivation
and trafficking is so widespread is because it is so lucrative.
And the only reason it is so lucrative is because consumers
in New York, Paris and London are prepared to pay such inflated
prices for their fix.
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'While
there are around eight million heroin users worldwide,
there may be
as many as 30 million regular synthetic drug users'
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Synthetic Drug Trade
A new trend in global drugs production and trafficking has further
undermined the developed world's high moral stance on the issue.
In recent years Europe has for the first time begun to export
significant quantities of illicit drugs. Just as heroin from
South-west Asia, and cocaine from the Andean countries flow
into Europe, so synthetic drugs like ecstasy and speed have
begun to make their way from European laboratories to Africa
and the Middle East. The rise of synthetic drug use is the new
challenge for organisations like the UNDCP. They estimate that
while there are around eight million heroin users worldwide,
there may be as many as 30 million regular synthetic drug users
- and that number is growing. Even if Pino Arlacchi succeeds
in eradicating all illicit plant drug cultivation, he may find
that the international drugs problem has fundamentally changed.
Of course, for those innocent camels pressed into action on
the Afghan border, none of this is of much concern. No-one really
blames them. All it means is that they might one day make the
journey back into Afghanistan with a lucrative load of European
ecstasy pills on their backs. For the sake of global society
let's hope they're never encouraged to make that journey.
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| Smuggling
In Body Parts |
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There
are many ways in which drug traffickers conceal
their consignments, but some are by far more gruesome
than others.
In 1998 US border patrol agents in Texas, found
$5.5 million worth of marijuana and cocaine hidden
amongst body parts in the back of a linen truck.
A Border Patrol spokeswoman said, "They
found an amputated leg, intestines and other muck".
It is thought that the body parts had come from
local hospitals and were used to try to mask the
smell of the drugs. |
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| Ecstasy
Seizures |
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US
Customs officials reported a dramatic increase in
the number of Ecstasy tablets seized in 1999.
More than 950,000 tablets were seized, which is
more than twice the previous annual record of 381,000
tablets in 1997. |
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