CHAPTER 3 ILLICIT NARCOTICS PRODUCTION AND TRAFFICKING Over the past several years a concerted effort has been made to learn more about illicit narcotics production and trafficking around the world. Nonetheless, information is still insufficient to accurately measure the worldwide production, consumption, and flow of illicit narcotics, such as opium and its derivatives. ILLICIT PRODUCTION Almost all the world's opium is grown in a narrow belt of mountains that stretches along the southern rim of the great Asian landmass. This opium-producing belt extends from Turkey's Anatolian plateau through the northern reaches of the Indian subcontinent, extending to the remote mountains of Burma, Thailand, and northern Laos. According to the 1972 World Opium Survey, an estimated 1,000 to 1,200 metric tons of illicit opium was produced in 1971. The following table shows a July 1974 State Department estimate of the annual illicit output by major producers. Only a small share of this illicit production was diverted from licit cultivation. Rather, most comes from regions where opium cultivation is prohibited by law but the government lacks political control to enforce it. The most notable examples are Afghanistan; Pakistan; and the Golden Triangle countries of Burma, Laos, and Thailand. Nevertheless, legal production does provide a cover for illicit opium growing, and much of India's illicit output represents diversions from areas where poppy cultivation is legal. By far, the bulk of the illicit opium is consumed either by the growers or addicts and users in nearby areas. The socalled Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia, an area that overlaps the common borders of Burma, Thailand, and Laos, is estimated to produce some 700 tons of opium a year. Of this amount, an estimated 600 tons, most converted to smoking opium, is consumed either by the tribesmen who grow it or by the large colonies of opium users in urban centers throughout Southeast Asia. Hong Kong alone is said to have a user and addict population ranging from 80,000 to 150,000. Most hill tribe consumers are more appropriately classified as opium users rather than addicts. They use opium for medicinal purposes and social and religious activities and, for the most part, probably do not consume regular amounts daily or weekly. To the extent that this is true, the tribal growers could be induced to sell part of what they normally consume if offered enough money. Although most countries have legislation prohibiting narcotics production and trafficking, opium bans have not generally been effective except in Turkey. Efforts to control opium production in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Golden Triangle have been unsuccessful, largely because the central governments have been unable to establish administrative control over the poppy-growing areas. In addition, opium bans have been extremely unpopular among the hill tribe poppy growers in the Golden Triangle because opium is often their only cash crop. Opium production and use has been socially and culturally accepted among these tribes for centuries. MAJOR TRAFFICKING NETWORKS In 1974 there were four major supply complexes of illicit opium and its derivatives, morphine and heroin, according to DEA. Turkey, France, Western Europe, South America, Canada, and the United States made up one complex. A second originated in Southeast Asia and the Golden Triangle area; included the remote border areas of Burma, Thailand, and Laos; and had shipping points in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Canada, and the west coast of the United States. A third comprised the Near East and South Asia, involving opium produced in India, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. The fourth was Mexico, the supplier of a brown heroin that has been increasingly seen in the United States. The Turkey-France complex The heroin complex originating in Turkey was the major supplier of eastern U.S. cities, where a virtual heroin epidemic existed in the midsixties. International groups purchased opium from Turkish farmers, converted it to morphine, and smuggled it to clandestine laboratories in France. 1 WESTERN EUROPE NETWORK Oplem and Morphine Base Movement from Turkey to THE EUROPE U.S. NETWORK Heroin Movement Routes from Europe to the United States Marseilles has been a primary city where such laboratories refine morphine into heroin. Within a 1-year period, French narcotics officers aided by DEA agents uncovered five heroin laboratories in the area. Delivery to the United States was made either through Canada or Mexico or directly into such major ports as New York and Miami. Later, as DEA and Customs agents traced and disrupted these routes, South America became a major transshipment point. This concentrated enforcement effort, the increased cooperation of Western European and South American governments, and the ban on poppy growing in Turkey greatly curtailed this extensive complex. The primary dividend of this multilateral effort was a prolonged period in which the heroin sold on the streets of major east coast and midwest cities dropped in volume and purity but increased in price. Unfortunately, the incidence and prevalence of heroin abuse are rising again. (See ch. 1.) Southeast Asia and the Golden Triangle Southeast Asia and the Golden Triangle, the second major opium supply complex, has emerged as a serious heroin-producing threat. According to DEA, this area is the greatest potential danger as a source of heroin. The end of the U.S. military presence in Vietnam in 1973 removed the major market for Southeast Asian heroin. Since then, the danger has been that Southeast Asian opium and heroin traffickers, saddled with surplus inventories, would be looking for new markets, including the United States. In this regard, low-grade heroin from Hong Kong and Bangkok, knows as "number 3" or "Chinese rock heroin," has already appeared in bulk in the United States and Europe. Burma is reputed to be the major refining area in the Golden Triangle. The opium is coverted to morphine in a relatively simple chemical process that usually takes place in a makeshift laboratory close to the poppy fields. Because of enforcement activities in the tri-border area, narcotics dealers have become more discreet. Most refineries have reportedly moved into Burma where they can receive protection from one of the various insurgent groups. Despite increased enforcement, Burma, Thailand, and Hong Kong remain major trafficking conduits for narcotics originating in the tri-border area. There are at least three major Burmese insurgent groups selling narcotics and other goods in exchange for arms and ammunition. Narcotics trafficking is the major source of financial support for such groups opposing the Burmese Government. Opiates are generally moved from Burma into northern Thailand by armed caravan. Once inside Thailand, the drugs are sealed in |