Pubdate: Mon, 11 Aug 2003
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter Of The Wall Street Journal
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

RUSSIAN DRUG OFFICIAL CRITICIZES U.S. FOR AFGHAN HEROIN SURGE

MOSCOW -- Calling attention to a growing sore spot between Washington and 
Moscow, Russia's newly appointed top drug cop said the U.S. could do more 
to reduce the flow of heroin from Afghanistan.

Gen. Viktor Cherkessov, whose appointment this spring to head Russia's huge 
new drug-enforcement agency signals Moscow's new emphasis on the problem, 
said in an interview recently that drug production in Afghanistan has 
increased "catastrophically." Asked if the U.S. is doing enough to help 
stem the problem, he chose his words carefully, saying that America isn't 
using its vast resources "to the fullest extent" to curtail production of 
Afghan opium.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, illegal drug use in Russia has 
skyrocketed, and heroin from Afghanistan is a favorite. That, in turn, has 
fueled explosive epidemics of HIV and other blood-borne viruses, such as 
hepatitis C.

During its last year in power, Afghanistan's Taliban regime virtually 
eliminated opium-poppy production, though this may have been an attempt to 
boost prices by restricting supply rather than a genuine antidrug effort. 
The Taliban profited from the drug trade, according to international drug 
experts.

But under U.S.-led occupation, Afghanistan's poppy output has surged again, 
accounting for more than three-quarters of world production. Gen. 
Cherkessov projects that this year's harvest will total 4,000 tons, up from 
the 3,422 tons that the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime says 
Afghanistan produced last year, its second-biggest harvest ever. 
Afghanistan produces virtually all the heroin sold in Russia and more than 
three-quarters of the heroin sold in Europe. Russia is a transit route for 
heroin headed to Western Europe.

U.S. intelligence knew long before Sept. 11, 2001, that opium puts money 
into the coffers of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. But over the past 
year, the U.S. hasn't curtailed production -- a situation about which 
Russian officials privately express outrage. In the interview, Gen. 
Cherkessov also derided U.N. efforts to encourage Afghan farmers to switch 
to other crops, saying no other crop matches opium's profit potential. He 
said the international community and the U.S. should work with Afghan 
forces to conduct military operations to stop opium production.

The general said he recently met with the U.S. ambassador to Russia 
together with a high-level group of American drug experts. Officials at the 
U.S. Embassy in Moscow declined to comment on the meeting, but a 
law-enforcement specialist there said that the U.S. is "providing 
equipment, vehicles, technical assistance and specialized training to 
antinarcotics units based near the Russian-Kazakh border in order to 
strengthen Russian law enforcement's counternarcotics capability." The 
official said the measures are aimed partly at stemming drug traffic from 
Afghanistan.

Gen. Cherkessov is a key member of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle 
of power. He and Mr. Putin studied together at Leningrad State University 
and, like the president, Gen. Cherkessov was a KGB officer. He headed up 
the Leningrad investigative department and hounded dissidents. A tall, 
husky man with silver hair, the 53-year-old is smooth but considered very 
tough.

His newly created State Committee for the Control of the Circulation of 
Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances has about 40,000 employees, and the 
bulk of its investigators come from the newly disbanded tax police. Gen. 
Cherkessov says he plans to exploit their financial expertise to attack 
drug lords through their money-laundering and other financial dealings. 
While his investigators will focus on narco-mafia kingpins, he said, 
ordinary police will continue "without decrease" to arrest and jail 
small-time users and dealers.

- -- Jeanne Whalen contributed to this article.
- ---
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