Pubdate: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 Source: Reuters (Wire) Copyright: 2002 Reuters Limited Author: Kevin Doyle CAMBODIA NOW A MAJOR HEROIN SMUGGLING ROUTE TO WEST PHNOM PENH - Cambodia is emerging as a major transit country for drug trafficking from Southeast Asia to the West as the infamous Golden Triangle replaces Afghanistan as the world's top producer of heroin, U.N. and local officials said on Friday. They said a hefty 200 kg (440 lbs) of heroin was crossing Cambodia's borders each month, much higher than previous years, with most of it ending up in Australia, Japan, Europe and the United States. Cambodian authorities seized just 10 kg of heroin during 2001. "Cambodia is most certainly a backdoor out of the Golden Triangle," said Graham Shaw of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention in Cambodia. The Golden Triangle refers to where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet. Shaw said the U.N. has received "very reliable" information that some 200 kg of heroin and up to three million amphetamine tablets were being smuggled from neighbouring Laos into northern Cambodia each month. "It's because of Cambodia's proximity to the Golden Triangle, the ease with which drugs can enter the country and the involvement of law enforcement officials," he told Reuters. The majority of the heroin entering Cambodia is smuggled by boat down the Mekong River to Vietnam and then the rest of the world. Most of the cheaply produced amphetamine pills are consumed locally in the capital Phnom Penh, Shaw said. Amphetamines can be purchased for just over one U.S. dollar in Phnom Penh and are even cheaper in provincial areas. Police have also reported heroin prices on the streets of Cambodia as some of the cheapest in the world. In Phnom Penh, one gram of heroin costs around $17. That is several dollars cheaper than in neighbouring Vietnam and Thailand and some $100 below prices in the United Kingdom, Shaw said. "The price is getting cheaper and cheaper as the months go by," Shaw said. Amphetamine Use Surges Amphetamine addiction is on the rise in Cambodia, showing signs of reaching similar proportions as in Thailand, where official estimates show four percent of Thais are addicted to illicit drugs, Shaw said. Police General Teng Savong, director-general of Cambodia's National Authority for Combating Drugs, said the country was now a major transit route for drugs. "The Golden Triangle is now the main source of drugs smuggled through Cambodia to the West," he told Reuters. "They import and re-export from here, but we don't how much." Teng Savong said corrupt Cambodian authorities, including police and military, were involved in the trafficking networks. "It makes me very worried about our anti-drug operations," the police general said. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth