Australia becomes major drug trafficking hub, UN World Drug Report shows
Pastor Dale Morgan
Australia becomes major drug trafficking hub, UN World Drug Report shows*
By Mark Schliebs
June 27, 2008 02:00am
Article from: NEWS.com.au
* Cocaine, ice, speed trade has tripled in 12 months
* Terrorists driving world growth, UN warns
* Global addiction - multimedia special
AUSTRALIA is one of the world’s fastest growing international
trafficking hubs for illegal drugs including cocaine, ice and speed, a
key United Nations report has found.
Trafficking in these drugs has tripled in Australia in the past 12
months, figures from the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World
Drug Report 2008 show.
The surge means the country now rates third in cocaine smuggling growth
- behind African hotspot Nigeria and South America’s Uruguay – compared
to data from the previous year.
The report, released at the UNODC’s headquarters in Vienna, also found:
• Cheap cocaine and heroin set to flood the world market
• Sophisticated new routes being used to smuggle drugs
• A plunge in the local use of cannabis and ecstasy
The UNODOC World Drug Report is a comprehensive snapshot taken each year
of the state of drug addiction, trafficking and policing around the globe.
This year it shows about 208 million people aged 15-64 worldwide – or
one in every twenty - had tried illicit drugs at least once in the past
12 months, and identified about 26 million as dependent, problem drug users.
Insurgents driving growth
UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said a surge in production
of opium and coca – used to make heroin and cocaine - had threatened to
unbalance the world drug market.
“Recent major increases in drug supply from Afghanistan and Colombia may
drive addiction rates up, because of lower prices and higher purity of
dose,” Mr Costa said.
The push - leading to a doubling of opium production since 2005 - is
being led in territories controlled by insurgents - from the Taliban in
Afghanistan to the South American revolutionary group FARC.
Burma - under a military junta – has also experienced a 29 per cent
increase in opium poppy cultivation.
“The threat to poor nations is certainly there,” Mr Costa said. “Weak
governments cannot face the onslaught of powerful drug barons, or drug
addiction.
“The attack must be pre-empted by technical assistance, better drug
prevention and treatment, and more cooperative law enforcement.”
As well as producing more than 90 per cent of the world’s opium,
Afghanistan has also started becoming a major producer of cannabis resin
– against a backdrop of an overall fall in cannabis production worldwide.
Coming to Australia
The report shows drug traffickers reaching Australia via three key
routes in Asia – through Indonesia, Laos and the Philippines.
But the data also shows Canada has overtaken the Asian countries as
Australia’s most common source of imported amphetamines - with the UNODC
declaring the journey one of the world’s “main trafficking routes”.
See UN drug trafficking maps here
“While trafficking in (amphetamines) end-products remains primarily an
intra-regional affair, there is evidence of increasing inter-regional
trafficking,” the report says.
“Precursor trafficking (chemicals used to make the drug) continues to be
predominately inter-regional, with the majority of precursors trafficked
out of South, East and South-East Asia.”
In total, authorities discovered about a ton of amphetamines in
Australia in 2006 – the latest available data used by the UN in the
report - compared to just 300kg the previous year.
Cocaine trafficking in Australia also tripled in the same period, the
UNODC said.
In 2005, authorities uncovered 90kg of cocaine, but 300kg was discovered
in the following 12 months.
Cocaine trafficked into Australia was sourced from North America, China
and western Africa, after it was smuggled out of Argentina and Venezuela.
But cocaine use across the nation remained stable.
Policing busts
The Australian Crime Commission said today the increase in amphetamines
and cocaine seized pointed to success from the law enforcement side.
ACC chief Alastair Milroy said it was difficult to identify particular
groups involved in trafficking but was aware of cocaine coming from
Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, Mexico, the US, Argentina, Guyana, Brazil and
Colombia.
Almost 40 per cent of amphetamine-type tablets seized came from India
and more than 20 per cent from the Netherlands.
Mr Milroy said drug trafficking was driven by changes in local demand
and the ability of criminals in other countries to supply at any given time.
“Law enforcement continues to remain vigilant to changes in criminal
networks and the methodologies used,” he said.
“Understanding … is critical in shaping the effective response of
Australian law enforcement.”
In recent years, cocaine has been discovered stuffed into computer
monitors and the brake drums in trucks, while amphetamines including ice
have been sent hidden in the post.
The ACC has said that trafficking cannabis into Australia remains
“economically unattractive due to low prices and plentiful supplies from
domestic cultivation”.