U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL STRATEGY REPORT, MARCH 1996

United States Department of State

Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Heroin and Opiates

Unfortunately, heroin seems to be gathering a growing following in the United States. The US heroin addict population, which had remained stable at about 500,000 persons for nearly two decades, has grown to about 600,000 and may well be higher. A disturbing trend of multiple drug use suggests that more of America's 2.1 million hard-core cocaine addicts are using heroin to cushion the "crash" that follows the euphoria of crack use. The availability of a more potent, high purity heroin that can be snorted or smoked instead of injected may also add to its appeal. It frees the user from hypodermic syringes and the added threat of acquiring AIDS from a contaminated needle. There is a danger that heroin may gain acceptance as an upscale drug only distantly linked to the junkies and derelicts of the 1960's. The heroin industry seems to be counting on a new generation's ignorance of its devastating consequences in order to develop a secure and lucrative market in the Western Hemisphere.

Elsewhere in the world, heroin's position as the drug of choice remains secure. Bumper opium poppy crops in Southwest Asia have helped feed a superabundance of heroin to markets throughout Europe. This year's INCSR chapters report an upsurge in heroin availability in virtually every country in Europe and countries of the former Soviet Union. The northern branch of the Balkan Route is moving greater quantities of heroin to markets in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and other countries in Eastern Europe, as more open borders facilitate transit of the drug. Heroin seizures continue to be commonplace in Africa, where Nigeria is a planning and distribution hub for most of the heroin destined for Europe and other African countries. In Southeast Asia, heroin continues to challenge traditional opium use. China is experiencing growing addiction problems, with teenagers making up the bulk of registered addicts. In Thailand, heroin has displaced opium as the drug of choice among the hilltribes. This, in turn, has allowed heroin trafficking organizations to expand their networks throughout northern Thailand. In short, wherever one looks, the heroin trade appears to be on the march.

Wholesale Advantage. Part of the allure of heroin to the drug trade is its wholesale advantage. While heroin and cocaine are priced competitively at the street level (roughly $100 per gram), at the wholesale level heroin is ten to twenty times more profitable to the drug syndicates. Where a kilo of cocaine will sell wholesale for between $10,500 and $40,000; a kilo of heroin fetches between $150,000 to $250,000. Little wonder then that the South American cocaine trafficking syndicates wish to take advantage of the wholesale profitability of the heroin trade, especially as marketing opportunities seem to abound.

Source and Transit Highlights. In the Western Hemisphere, there was good news as USG imagery determined that Colombia's opium poppy cultivation was only about one third as great as previously estimated. While considerably less than the 20,000 hectares estimated in previous years, Colombia's 6,540 hectares, assuming three crops per year, make it the largest potential opium producer in the Hemisphere. Across the border in Venezuela, government authorities located and destroyed 1,600 hectares of poppy in the Serrania de Perija frontier region. This was the second year that Venezuelan law enforcement agencies found a spill- over from Colombian opium poppy cultivation. In Peru, where the government in the past has destroyed numerous small poppy plots, for the second year authorities seized a commercial quantity of opium gum.

This action follows reports that Mexican drug mafias have increased their presence in Peru and are pressing Huallaga Valley campesinos to plant poppies. Further moves toward opium poppy cultivation should be a source of concern, since it represents a continuing escalation of Latin America's already serious drug production problems. It is also a matter of concern to the United States, since the quality of South American heroin is improving. In its 1994 NNICC Report, issued in August 1995, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) noted that South American heroin had the highest purity (average 59.3 percent) of any samples analyzed under its Domestic Monitor Program.

Since Guatemala has successfully eliminated all but a negligible amount of poppy cultivation--another testimonial to the critical importance of aerial eradication--Mexico remains the second largest Latin American grower of opium poppy. At the end of the year, the Mexican government had eradicated over 6,600 hectares, leaving approximately 5,800 hectares under cultivation. Mexico's cultivation levels in 1994 were the highest since 1989, when the Salinas government began an aggressive campaign to reduce opium production.

Nigeria remains central to the worldwide heroin trade. Nigerian traffickers smuggle Asian heroin to the United States and to Europe. They are also among the leading carriers of Southeast and Southwest Asian heroin into the United States. Last year, Interpol listed Nigerian couriers as the third largest heroin smuggling group in the world. Nigerian traffickers are believed to be using Hungary as a transit point for drugs.

Europe remains a steadily growing market for Southwest Asian heroin. The centuries-old Balkan smuggling route from Turkey to Austria has been expanded northward into Romania, Hungary, and the Czech and Slovak Republics, and southward through Croatia, Slovenia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece and Albania. Slovakia is becoming a key conduit for smuggling Southwest Asian heroin to Western Europe. The seizure by Slovakian authorities of a Turkish truck destined for Germany with a record load of over 200 kilograms of heroin was an alarming indication of the quantities moving along the trifurcated Balkan Route. Turkish trafficking groups, with distributors in ethnic enclaves in major European cities, control much of the Balkan Route heroin trade.

Russia has emerged as a key drug market, a conduit for smuggling illicit drugs to Western markets, and a producer of illicit amphetamines and opium poppy. The break-up of the Soviet Union and the transition to a market economy are making Russia more vulnerable to organized and financial crimes, including those involving narcotics. Russian authorities claim that drug use is now accelerating at a fifty percent increase per year and there are now over 2 million drug users in Russia. Law enforcement authorities believe that Russian criminal groups control most of the trafficking and distribution in Russia. Most appear to operate locally, but many of the small criminal gangs located in the Central Asian and Transcaucus states and Ukraine have formed links with Russian distributors in key Russian cities.

Ukraine's considerable role as a conduit for drug smuggling from Central Asia and Turkey to Europe is reflected in over 23 tons of narcotics seized in the first half of 1995. Moreover, authorities have also begun to seize chemical shipments destined for Southwest Asia for use in the production of illicit narcotics such as heroin.

The Central Asian countries of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, once important opium poppy growing regions of the old Soviet Union, are now playing a greater role in heroin trafficking. Since Kazakstan is a transportation and communication bridge between Europe and Asia, trafficking organizations have been moving significant and increasing quantities of opium from Southwest Asia and China to Russia, other Newly Independent States (NIS) and Europe. A recent increase in seizures along the Kazak with China reflects increased trafficking of Southeast Asian heroin through Kazakstan.

In 1995, Kyrgyzstan officials seized one ton of opium that was destined for Western markets. Kyrgyzstan's location makes it attractive to increased transit trade as heroin and hashish traffickers seek new routes from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Russia and the West. The growing use of this route by traffickers to channel drugs from Afghanistan to the NIS and the West has resulted in a corresponding rise in drug related crimes in Kyrgyzstan itself. Tajikistan, in 1995, remained a major conduit for smuggling opium and hashish from Afghanistan to Russia, the NIS, and Europe. In October 1995, the Tajik Customs Service made its first-ever seizure of heroin on the Afghan border. Tajikistan government security officials estimate that the flow of drugs transiting Tajikistan is on the rise.

In Southwest Asia, opium poppy cultivation rose significantly in 1995. Most of the increase came from Afghanistan, where USG surveys show a 33 percent increase in poppy cultivation over the 1993-94 figures. Afghan opium is the source of much of Europe's heroin. Sophisticated Pakistani trafficking organizations operating out of Quetta, Pakistan, smuggle heroin base and morphine out of Afghanistan to the international market. These groups place orders with the Afghani processors and arrange for transshipment of the drugs from Afghanistan through Pakistan and to Iranian or Turkish buyers who move it through Iran and into international drug channels. Most Afghan opium is destined for processing into heroin in Turkey. The finished heroin is sold primarily in Europe, and to a lesser extent, in the United States. In Pakistan, opium poppy cultivation dropped from 7,270 hectares in 1994 to 6,950 hectares at the end of 1995. Over 1,600 hectares were eradicated in a major opium poppy eradication campaign.

The Golden Triangle area of Southeast Asia had a record year, with estimated total potential opium production exceeding 4,000 metric tons. Poppy cultivation was up in Burma and Laos, but dropped in China and Thailand. As in previous years, Burma remained the world's largest potential opium producer, with an estimated 2,340 metric tons available. That amount could produce an estimated 234 metric tons of heroin, enough to satisfy much of the world's craving for the drug. In 1995, Laos, with an estimated 180 metric tons of potential opium production, edged out Pakistan and became the world's third largest potential producer of illegal opium after Burma and Afghanistan.