Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2001
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Anna Badkhen, SF Chronicle Foreign Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

DRUG TRADE COULD BLOOM AMID CONFLICT

War Might Provide Smoke Screen For Traffic

Kalinin, Tajikistan -- Sprawled out on a pile of pillows in the adobe home 
of Safar Safoyev, a Russian border officer demanded heroin. "Bring a 
little," said the colonel, who went by his first name, Sasha. "Just a small 
dose to show the guests."

Safoyev smiled slyly and said he didn't have any drugs at the moment. His 
son, Roma, also grinned, showing a row of gold teeth, before slapping Sasha 
on the shoulder.

Just 2 miles south of Safoyev's house lies Afghanistan, the world's largest 
supplier of opium and heroin. This tiny village in southeastern Tajikistan 
is one of the first stops on what is informally known as the Great Drug Road.

Afghanistan, which produces 4,000 tons of opium annually, or about 75 
percent of the world's supply, uses impoverished Tajikistan, a former 
Soviet republic, as a major transit country en route to Europe and the 
United States.

And as U.S.-led forces prepare to strike against suspected terrorist havens 
in Afghanistan, observers expect the chaos to lead to a dramatic increase 
in drug trafficking.

Most opium is produced in territory controlled by the Taliban, which has 
provided refuge to Osama bin Laden, the man the U.S. government suspects of 
masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks. Just last week, the Taliban lifted its 
14-month ban on poppy cultivation -- an activity they had called 
"un-Islamic." Last year, the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed 
Omar, had warned that "anyone violating this statute will be punished 
accordingly." Opium production then dropped by 97 percent, according to 
U.N. officials.

Poppy Crop Tied To Attacks

But Taliban officials told farmers to resume planting opium poppies if the 
United States attacked the country. Observers speculate that the Islamic 
government hopes to finance its defense against U.S. strikes with drug profits.

The Taliban, which charges a 30 percent tax on all opium production, had 
used the drug as an important source of revenue to fight opposition forces 
called the Northern Alliance. The mujahedeen fighters who battled the 
Soviet Union for a decade also partly funded their resistance by selling opium.

Immediately after the announcement that farmers could resume production, 
wholesale prices of heroin in Afghanistan dropped by more than 80 percent, 
leading to speculation that Afghan traffickers may already be selling their 
stock.

Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the U.N. Office for Drug Control and 
Crime Prevention, says significant stockpiles of opium are scattered across 
Afghanistan, where factories refine the drug before it is smuggled into 
Tajikistan or Iran.

However, he says, initial sales may not be directed by the Taliban. 
"Criminal groups, who are as powerful as the Taliban and as powerful as 
anybody else in Afghanistan, have full control of those stockpiles," he 
told the Associated Press.

The U.S. State Department and the United Nations have said that drug 
traffickers also operate freely in areas controlled by the Northern 
Alliance, the Afghan opposition that has been fighting the Taliban for 
years and controls about 10 percent of the country. They are believed to 
act as middlemen in the transportation of opium.

Routine Gunfire On Frontier

The 10,000 border guards who patrol the 682-mile Tajik-Afghan frontier 
routinely trade fire with drug couriers, although a spokesman for the 
guards said it was impossible to know whether the drug-runners worked for 
the Taliban, the Northern Alliance or some other drug network.

In August, smugglers and Russian soldiers clashed 16 times, said Lt. Col. 
Pyotr Gordiyenko, a spokesman for Russian border guards in Tajikistan's 
capital, Dushanbe. Last year, four border guards were killed during such 
clashes, he said.

The couriers drive across the border in Chevrolet Blazers surrounded by 
bodyguards equipped with state-of-the-art night-vision and communication 
gear, Gordiyenko says. Arlacchi says each drug run is protected by 20 to 
150 armed men.

"The days when one courier carried 5 kilos of heroin are gone," Gordiyenko 
said.

Drug trafficking through Tajikistan has increased substantially in recent 
years. In 1994, border police seized 572 pounds of raw opium and heroin. In 
contrast, they seized 4.8 tons during the first eight months of 2001, 
Gordiyenko said.

The confusion caused by a full-scale war just south of the Tajik border 
would make drug smuggling across the frontier even easier, border guards say.

"Everyone will be running back and forth. There will be piles of dead 
bodies, wounded people," said Sasha, the Russian colonel. "No one would 
notice the smugglers. No one would care about drugs anymore." Once the 
drugs cross the border, it is not clear who takes them from the Afghan 
couriers. The United Nation's Arlacchi says drug kingpins are often local 
traders, fighters, a customs official or a local mayor.

Under Suspicion

Ever since 12 Russian soldiers based in the town of Dushanbe were caught 
trying to ship 17 pounds of narcotics to Moscow, the Russian military has 
also fallen under suspicion. And border guards, who transport weapons and 
ammunition from Moscow for the alliance, privately say the Northern 
Alliance sometimes pays for weapons with precious stones and, occasionally, 
opium and heroin. Some observers, however, point at Taliban-trained Islamic 
rebels in Tajikistan's mountains. Others say the smugglers inside 
Tajikistan work for former opposition warlords who fought post-Communist 
leaders during a five-year Tajik civil war that killed more than 30,000 
people. Opposition leaders retained significant influence, observers say, 
which they used in order to legitimize their share of the drug trade after 
a power-sharing agreement in 1997 ended Tajikistan's conflict. Tajikistan's 
southeastern Khatlonn region is rife with warlords and is a bastion of the 
political opposition. In Kalinin, Safoyev's village of about 800 people, 
residents earn an average wage of $15 a month and must endure frequent 
droughts. There are no steady jobs to be had, no medicine to be found, no 
food in shops.

"Once, we lived well in the village, we had jobs, we had cars," said 
Safoyev, 69. "Now, we have one tractor, but no gas." As a result, local 
residents appear to have found a trade that helps them to survive.

"Come on, bring me drugs," Sasha demanded again. "Where is the heroin?"
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