Source: Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden) Contact: http://www.svd.se/svd/ettan/dagens/index.html Pubdate: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 Author: Elisabet Andresson Comment: Translated from Swedish RECORD SEIZURES OF HEROIN FROM THE EAST Heroin is one of the most feared drugs: the mortality among heroin users is many times higher than among other drug users. This year police and customs officials have uncovered record-breaking quantities of heroin in Sweden;among other reasons thanks to stepped up cooperation with the police in the former states of East Europe. About 65 kilograms of heroin have been seized in Sweden this year. That can be compared with 14 kilograms for all of 1997. "In all likelihood, cooperation with the Czech Republic and Slovakia has meant a lot," said Lennart Davidsson, the National Criminal Police Force"s expert on heroin smuggling from the Balkans. Today the Czech Republic and Slovakia are the main countries for heroin smugglers. Traffic that previously went via the Netherlands and Belgium, among other places, has moved eastwards. "Many criminals have discovered that the east is a good area to work in since the monitoring system is not as developed there," said Steve Alm, an expert on narcotics and narcotic preparations at the National Criminal Police Force. The heroin generally comes to Europe via Turkey and is then smuggled through the former Yugoslavia. Stashes are often uncovered in the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Hungary, and from there the heroin is moved out into Europe. "Just in terms of investigations, we are quite clear about how it is organized," said Thomas Servin, the chief of the drug-related and violence unit at the Skane county criminal police force. According to the police, it is mainly Kosovo Albanian rings that organize heroin smuggling into the Nordic area. With their low prices; and lower demands for profits; they have pushed other groups out of competition from portions of the European market. They have been successful, among other reasons, thanks to traditional ties to Turkey and a powerful network across Europe. "Between 80 and 90 percent of what has been seized in Sweden this year can be linked to Kosovo Albanian rings," Davidsson said. The rings often recruit unemployed young men from, for example, Germany and the Czech Republic as couriers. They look for men who look blonde and Nordic. The couriers then usually move the heroin in an EU-registered car to the Swedish border. The smuggling often occurs via Germany and Denmark; that is, EU countries, which means that customs authorities only get to do spot checks if they are suspicious. According to the police, it is Kosovo Albanians who to a large extent also receive the heroin in Sweden and send it onwards to sellers. "A minority of Kosovo Albanians in Sweden are engaged in it. These are men who do not see other alternatives if they want to earn money," Davidsson said. Currently several major heroin investigations are under way. But even if the police often say they know a lot about how the smuggling is organized, it can be difficult to get evidence in cases. Often it is only the courier who is caught. In 1996, though, three Kosovo Albanians who lived in Landskrona and Malmo were sentenced for having organized heroin smuggling to Sweden and thence to Norway. A problem for the police and prosecutors is that the couriers are almost always loyal to their employers. However one Czech courier, who was caught last year with one kilogram of heroin in Trelleborg, helped police get on the trail of Kosovo Albanian employers in Central Europe. Another problem is that within the rings too there is strong loyalty, which means that very little information slips out. "This involves very tight family-based organizations. Very rarely is there the internal dissension that you see in other, looser confederations," Alm said. No one knows whether this year"s record-breaking seizures of heroin are due just to the fact that police and customs authorities have become more efficient or whether they also indicate that the smuggling has intensified. Yet there are indications that demand for heroin has increased in Sweden. "Here in Skane we have see how many drug users are starting directly with heroin; previously most of them took the long route and might have started with hashish," Servin said. A drug user who buys heroin on the street frequently pays around 2,000 kronor per gram. That means that the seizures that have been made thus far this year would be worth 130 million kronor. - --- Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)