State Dept. Report Labels Nigeria Major Trafficker of Drugs to U.S.
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The State Department said today that some Nigerians, with the help of their Government, have created global drug trafficking networks in Europe and Asia that officials estimate provide 35 percent to 40 percent of the heroin that enters the United States. The report, an annual world survey of drug cultivation and trafficking, also describes a dramatic expansion of Russian criminal groups involved in smuggling and distributing heroin from Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, where heroin production continues to increase. The report was mandated by Congress in 1986 as a way to withhold aid and international loans from countries found to be not “fully cooperating” with Washington’s antidrug efforts. But over the years it has become an annual admission of the worldwide inability to curb the production and export of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. No ally of the United States has ever been economically penalized for a lack of cooperation, and in a memorandum with the report President Clinton announced penalties only against nations with which Washington has no relations or only severely strained relations: Myanmar, Iran, Nigeria and Syria. Nigeria, whose citizens have been arrested in almost every country where heroin has been seized, from Poland to Saudi Arabia, was placed on the list for the first time. Last year Nigeria ignored repeated appeals by the Administration to crack down on traffickers and failed to apprehend and extradite several major fugitive traffickers indicted in the United States. “Nigeria has become a major source of trafficking around the world, as Nigerian trafficking organizations have become one of the most extraordinary, organized phenomena of carrying heroin and cocaine both into the United States and Europe,” said Robert Gelbard, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters, who briefed reporters. “We calculate that some 35 to 40 percent of all heroin coming into the United States comes from Nigerians who bring it into this country.” Mr. Gelbard said Nigerians involved in the drug networks “are not random mules, or individuals who are doing this on a free-lancing basis.” “These are people working for very organized groups, which we have felt is with the protection of Government officials,” he added. Cocaine, for example, enters Nigeria primarily from Brazil for re-export to Europe and for regional and domestic consumption, the report says. Syria’s Role As for Syria, Secretary of State Warren Christopher overruled an initial State Department recommendation that the country be rewarded for some modest antidrug measures after some of his senior aides and some White House officials questioned the wisdom of such a politically sensitive move. The report says Syria’s military presence in Lebanon makes it “at least partly accountable” for the cultivation and processing of Lebanese heroin, hashish and cocaine destined for Europe, the Persian Gulf and the United States. “It’s one of the issues which remains, for obvious reasons, a major bilateral problem,” Mr. Gelbard said. 6 Countries Singled Out In his memorandum, Mr. Clinton singled out Afghanistan, Bolivia, Laos, Panama, Peru and Lebanon as other countries that did not cooperate sufficently with antidrug efforts, but he waived economic sanctions because of unspecified “vital national interests.” One worrisome trend, the report says, is that Russia has become “a central marketing point” for heroin from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. The drug is moved overland to Europe, with the potential to destabilize fragile governments along the way, the report says. “Criminal organizations in Russia have set up supply routes to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia,” the report adds, while other supply lines move drugs to the Baltic ports. Inside Russia, seizures of hashish, opium, heroin and cocaine doubled last year. The authorities report 1.5 million Russians use drugs, and cite the growing use of cocaine among rich young people. Where Money Intersects Because of an absence of controls and legislation, laundering of drug money in Russia is a “growing problem,” the report says. Russia is also emerging as a drug producer, the report says, and the Russian authorities have reported the seizure of 215 drug-making laboratories, including amphetamine operations created with stolen Government equipment. In Afghanistan, which after Myanmar is the world’s second-largest opium producer, opium poppy production rose almost 9 percent last year, the report says. Drug cultivation and trafficking is also reported to be gaining ground in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In Central America, the report says Panama has shown a “disappointing lack of political will to address drug corruption and money-laundering schemes.” As a result of its sophisticated banking structure, lenient regulation and inefficient enforcement, Panama has become Latin America’s leading center for money laundering, the report adds. More : query.nytimes.com |