RUSSIA SEES CHECHNYA DRUG THREAT

MOSCOW, Oct 26, 1999 -- (Reuters) A top Russian crime fighter said on
Monday breakaway Chechnya was harvesting opium poppies, producing heroin
and selling the drug to growing numbers of Russian youngsters.

"Not only today but already two or three years ago, we have been seriously
concerned about the production of drugs in Chechnya," Leonid Tantsorov,
deputy head of the interior ministry's anti-drug department, told a news
conference.

"According to information we have obtained there are sizeable fields where
opium poppies are being grown and they are making it into morphine and
heroin."

Tantsorov said criminal groups have been set up in Chechnya to sell heroin
and other drugs to Russians.

Russian troops have been bombing villages and towns in Chechnya for more
than a month, aiming to crush Islamic fighters Moscow blames for staging a
series of bomb blasts in several Russian towns.

Russian media have been supporting the military action in Chechnya with
pictures of generals promising flour and sugar to thankful crowds of
refugees, steering clear of pictures of those killed in the air strikes.

Tantsorov said Russia would find out exactly how much heroin was being
produced in Chechnya after the military operation had been completed.

"Chechnya has factories for the production of heroin - it's not very pure -
but today not one specialist or expert can really say for sure what
quantity they are producing," he said.

"They don't have the capacity, nor the facilities, nor the raw material to
produce that much (heroin). We can only speak about hundreds of kilograms."

Tantsorov said heroin production in Chechnya was not the only drug threat
to Russia and urged greater international cooperation in tackling the drugs
problem.

He said Russia's security organs had confiscated 44 metric tons of drugs in
the first nine months of this year and the interior ministry had recorded
160,000 drug-related crimes, up 14 percent from the same period last year.

"In our country, over the last 10 and especially the last five years, the
problem of illegal drug sales has sharpened and has become a threat to the
country's security," he said.

"What is especially worrying is that 70 percent of drug users are
youngsters."