Heroin smuggling

Figure 9.1 Heroin smuggled inside fake duck eggs. Reuters/CORBIS...

A study published in India in 2004 revealed opiate prevalence rates of around 0.7 per cent for males2, which is equivalent to an annual prevalence of around 0.4 per cent of the general population aged 15-64, or slightly less than 3 million people. Opiate abuse in India increased in 2005, fuelled by the increasing availability of heroin smuggled from Afghanistan. 

U.S. military involvement in Vietnam was credited with the next major surge in heroin smuggling into the United States. Political and economic turmoil in the region led to a surge in production from Southeast Asia s Golden Triangle. By the end of the U.S. war in Vietnam, there were some 750,000 heroin addicts on American streets. 

The Board is pleased to note that, during 2004, two additional countries, Serbia and Montenegro and Turkmenistan, joined the operation. Their participation is considered very important. In the case of Serbia and Montenegro, traffickers have targeted that country for the diversion of acetic anhydride from licit trade to be subsequently smuggled into areas where illicit heroin... 

Notably 85 percent of all opium cultivation is directed toward illicit commerce. Most opium is converted into heroin before it is put on the market. This is the result of several factors. First, to produce the same effect, it requires approximately 30 times more opium than heroin. Also, heroin takes up less space and is thus easier and safer to smuggle. Finally, heroin, because of its more powerful and concentrated effect, can be sold at greater prices, earning the dealer higher profits than with opium. 

Finally, drug use rates have been growing rapidly in Central Asia, suggesting that the smuggling is indeed being conducted by a large number of small couriers, with the possibility that the heroin is sold-on multiple times before reaching its final destination. 

The opium outputs consolidated by the small-scale traders are sold at one of many well-known bazaars to large-scale traders. These consolidated loads are moved to the border areas, where the drugs are either smuggled as opium or processed to become heroin in one of a number of laboratories.54 In the first eight months of 2006, 248 heroin labs were dismantled in Afghanistan.55 The cooks who convert the opium to heroin are largely Pashtun. In the north, they are often Shinwaris... 

Opium has been known and used for 4000 years or more. In recent times, attempts have been made at governmental and international levels to control the cultivation of the opium poppy, but with only limited success. In endeavours to reduce drug problems involving opium-derived materials, especially heroin, where extremely large profits can be made from smuggling relatively small amounts of opium, much pharmaceutical production has been replaced by the processing of the bulkier poppy straw . The entire plant tops are harvested and dried, then extracted for their alkaloid content in the pharmaceutical industry. Poppy straw now accounts for most of the medicinal opium alkaloid production, but there is still... 

After federal bans on opium, black markets developed to supply the demand. World War II temporarily interrupted opium smuggling routes. After the war, smuggling resumed with the U.S. government becoming involved in struggles in Southeast Asia that are sometimes blamed for fostering opium production and the heroin trade. 

Traffickers Heroin is frequently trafficked through Asian airports like Bangkok, Mumbai, Delhi, Tehran, Karachi, Islamabad, and Lahore to smuggle heroin in body cavities or household goods. European nationals are recruited as couriers to bring heroin by... 

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