GUNS EXCHANGED FOR DRUGS BETWEEN PNG AND AUSTRALIA

Port Moresby: Guns for use in tribal warfare and crime were being swapped
for marijuana in the smuggling trade between Papua New Guinea and
Queensland, PNG Police Minister Mathias Karani said here yesterday.

The PNG drug trade was also extending into the Indonesian province of
Irian Jaya, although the minister did not refer to guns in this aspect
of the trade.

The highly potent marijuana from the Highlands provinces and West
Sepik and Western provinces - known in the trade as Niugini Gold and
locally as spak brus - fetches kina 300 a kilo (about $A200), a high
price locally but cheap at Australian prices.

'PNG is known internationally for growing and producing very high
quality marijuana ... which has a potency far above marijuana grown in
many other countries,' said Karani, who was helping to launch a
national anti-drug use campaign.

'Drug trafficking is being heavily conducted, particularly in Western
and West Sepik provinces, which share common borders with Australia
and Indonesia.

'PNG serves a large domestic and international market, with the value
of locally-cultivated marijuana trading for about K300 a kilogram.
This has lured many coffee, tea and vegetable growers away into
growing marijuana.

'...marijuana is changing hands for high-powered guns and ammunition
for use in tribal warfare in the Highlands.'

The police minister said Wewak and Madang were common points of export
via sea and air, while the Australian points of export were Gulf
Province and Western Province. Marijuana was also finding its way by
land to Lae and to ships in Milne Bay Province.

'A recent international operation which resulted in the seizure of
cannabis in a container in the North Queensland city of Townsville
confirmed that Lae is being used as a transhipment point,' he said.

There was also 'stark evidence that known hard drugs such as heroin,
amphetamines and cocaine are being brought into PNG through Asia and
Australia', he added.