EUROPE FAILS TO STEM RISING DRUG TIDE

Europe is losing the war against drugs, according to intelligence reports
from the US Drug Enforcement Administration obtained by the London-based
Guardian newspaper.

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 - and police forces stretched thin while trying to cope with
Europe's porous borders.

The drug traffickers have been so successful that they have compiled huge
hidden stockpiles throughout western and eastern Europe to ensure an
uninterrupted supply. An increase in drug seizures throughout Europe and
Asia is interpreted not as effective policing, but as a sign of increasing
volumes. The DEA is especially critical of the policies of the Netherlands
Government, expressing scepticism about the effectiveness of its liberal
approach.

It describes the Netherlands as "perhaps the most important drug
trafficking and transiting area in Europe". Trends in the drug trade, it
says, undermine the Dutch Government's policy of discriminating between
"soft" and "hard" drugs.

The DEA reports on 10 countries, from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey,
Albania, Serbia-Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the
Netherlands, were obtained by the Guardian during the past six months
through the US Freedom of Information Act. They provide the most up-to-date
information on the changing supply routes from the golden crescent
countries - Afghanistan and Pakistan - to Europe.

The traditional route through the Balkans was disrupted by conflict
throughout the 1990s, particularly the war in Kosovo last year. While
variations on the route, using Croatia and Macedonia, have been adopted,
much of that trade has shifted to the north. 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 DEA emphasises that the lifting of border restrictions within the
European Union under the Schengen Agreement, which Britain opted out of,
has made life easier for drug traffickers.

"Although this agreement is advantageous for trade, it is also attractive
to drug traffickers," the report says.

In one especially pessimistic passage, the DEA concludes that drug
traffickers have built up stockpiles that allow them to ensure smooth
supplies. "In the last few years, heroin has been increasingly stockpiled
in some western and eastern European locations, enabling West European
travellers to take delivery of the drug closer to home," it says.