MURKY BUSINESS

EUROPE is losing the war against drugs, according to the US Drug Enforcement
Administration. The reports reveal dramatic increases in drug production -
from poppy crops used to make heroin in Afghanistan, to the manufacture of
ecstasy in the Netherlands. The DEA is especially critical of the policies
of the Netherlands government, expressing scepticism about the effectiveness
of its liberal approach. Netherlands is "perhaps the most important drug
trafficking and transiting area in Europe". Trends in the drug trade
undermine the Dutch government's policy of discriminating between 'soft' and
'hard' drugs. DEA reports on 10 countries, from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran,
Turkey, Albania, Serbia-Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina
and the Netherlands, provide the most up-to-date information on the changing
supply routes from the Golden Crescent countries to Europe. The traditional
route through the Balkans was disrupted by conflict throughout the 1990s,
particularly the war in Kosovo last year.

Routes that emerged after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 are now
witnessing the biggest volume of drug trafficking, especially through the
Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. The lifting of border
restrictions within the European Union under the Schengen agreement has made
life easier for drug traffickers. Although this agreement is advantageous
for trade, it is also attractive to drug traffickers. The Netherlands is the
world's biggest producer of ecstasy, a 'designer drug' that is a mixture of
amphetamine and mescaline. Smuggling is carried out by rail, air and post,
but mainly by road in private cars, commercial buses and - the most popular
method - in large container trucks.

The traditional route for heroin trafficking was through Pakistan and Iran,
but the Iranian government has sent its troops into bloody battles with
increasingly sophisticated drug traffickers from Afghanistan, so the
traffickers have moved their routes north.