EUROPE FAILS TO STEM RISING DRUG TIDE, DEA SAYS

LONDON - Europe is losing the war against drugs, according to intelligence
reports from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The reports - obtained by the Guardian - 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.

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 Dutch government, expressing
skepticism 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.

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 U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

They provide the most up-to-date information on the changing supply routes
from 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 emphasizes that the lifting of border restrictions within the
European Union has made life easier for drug traffickers.

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
travelers to take delivery of the drug closer to home.

"Turkish heroin trafficking organizations work in collusion with nationals
from eastern Europe who have established heroin depots to store large
quantities of heroin and release it on demand. These storage facilities
ensure a steady, uninterrupted drug supply to west European consumers."

A report on the Netherlands, dated June 2000, says that Amsterdam is
"rather unique in that every type of drug-smuggling and distribution
organization is represented for strategic and logistical purposes. It is an
organizational center, a central brokerage point and a safe haven."

Among the groups active in drug trafficking in Amsterdam are Turks,
Colombians, Kurds, Chinese, Nigerians, Israelis, Moroccans, British and Irish.

The DEA estimates that 75 percent of the heroin arriving in the Netherlands
is for onward shipment throughout Europe and North America.

The heroin trail begins in Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of
opium. Although a reduction in the amount of land being cultivated for
poppies is predicted for this year, the trend in the volume of opium
production has been steadily upwards.

Production has risen by 33 percent in the past three years, according to
U.S. estimates, and 80 percent of illegal opiate products in Europe come
from Afghanistan.