U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL STRATEGY REPORT, MARCH 1996:
MAJOR COCAINE AND HEROIN PRODUCING COUNTRIES WITH SIGNIFICANT CHEMICAL DIVERSION
United States Department of State
Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Burma. Burma is a party to the 1988 UN Convention and has laws implementing the Convention's major provisions dealing with chemical control, including
provisions for the seizure of illicit chemicals and the arrest of those
trafficking in them. The fact that Burma is the world's largest
producer of illicit heroin indicates that despite the laws, traffickers
have little difficulty obtaining the chemicals they require.
Burma's geography and geographic location facilitates this. Most of the
chemicals are smuggled across the borders with China and India and, to a
lesser extent Thailand, into to remote heroin producing areas. Laws and
regulations over chemical commerce will not stop the clandestine
smuggling. Border controls will; in one operation in May 1995, the
military intelligence and police seized 721.5 gallons of acetic
anhydride entering Burma from China's Yunnan Province.
Pakistan. Heroin is manufactured in Pakistan using essential chemicals
smuggling in relatively small lots from India via train and cross-desert
caravans. Larger quantities come through the port of Karachi and
significant shipments of acetic anhydride reportedly have been
intercepted recently in Central Asia destined for Afghanistan, possibly
for use in heroin refineries along the Pakistani border.
Pakistan is a party to the 1988 UN Convention but does not have a
chemical control regime fulfilling all the chemical control provisions
of the Convention. The emphasis is on acetic anhydride, a key heroin
essential chemical. Controls over the single licit manufacturer of
acetic anhydride are good and progress is being made in controlling
smuggling from India, but the government has difficulty identifying
illegal shipments through the port of Karachi and smuggling from
Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, acetic anhydride seizures were up to 5496 liters (the
amount required to produce approximately 5500 kilos of heroin) through
the first nine months of 1995. This is an increase of 110 percent over
the final figures for 1995.
Turkey. Smuggled morphine base is illegally processed in Turkey into
heroin for internal and export markets. A dramatic surge in 1995 of
seizures of smuggled acetic anhydride, a key heroin essential chemical,
and the discovery and destruction of eight heroin labs, indicates
traffickers have increased processing activity.
The Turkish Parliament ratified the 1988 UN Convention in 1995, but
implementing legislation for the Convention's chemical control
provisions has not been adopted. Current law imposes control on acetic
anhydride and Turkish authorities enforce it vigorously. In 1995, about
53 tons of acetic anhydride were seized, including a seizure of 12.8
tons from a Dutch registered truck at the Bulgarian border. (The
customs guards had received INL-funded training.)
US/Turkish cooperation in narcotics law is good. With specific regard
to chemicals, the Turkish Government strongly supported a regional
chemical control conference hosted by DEA/Turkey in Istanbul in
September 1995. Officials responsible for chemical control from 22
European, Middle Eastern, and Central and South Asian countries
attended. It was funded and conducted by DEA's Office of Diversion
Control and the European Commission.
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