ROMANIA URGES ACTION TO FIGHT DRUG TRAFFICKING

SNAGOV, Romania -- (Reuters) Romania, a new link in drug trade routes
linking the Middle East and Western Europe, urged neighboring countries on
Monday to join a campaign to thwart smugglers and cut down abuse by young
people.

"Fully aware of the consequences of the scourge of drugs, we call for more
cooperation, exchange of information and joint action," Colonel Calin
Mateescu, head of Romania's organized crime fighting brigade, told an
international conference.

"Romania is the main section of a new, second Balkan route. It is an oasis
of tranquillity and the safest way through the region. In 12 hours you can
cross Romania, in another five you pass through Hungary to get to (European
Union) states."

Mateescu was addressing a two-day Southeastern Europe regional conference
attended by Interior Ministry and customs officials from Bulgaria, Greece,
Turkey, Hungary and the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Ukraine.

The conference was taking place 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Bucharest
at the former lakeside residence of Romania's late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Mateescu said the war in Bosnia had forced traffickers to find alternatives
to the more direct route to Western Europe through Turkey, Bulgaria and
Yugoslavia. Romania had become a prime target, with drugs entering either
by road through Bulgaria or through the Black Sea port of Constanta.

"From its start as a transit country, Romania has fast become a storage
place and will soon be a consuming market," he said. For the moment, he
said, only 20 percent of the drugs passing through Romania were sold locally.

Eight years after the downfall of communism and the opening of its borders,
Romania has had to launch several programs to curb booming corruption and
organized crime.

President Emil Constantinescu, who attended a U.N. session on drug abuse in
New York this month, has set fighting crime and corruption as a top priority.

The campaign has produced meager results, though Mateescu praised a bill
now before parliament on money laundering and corruption and new long jail
terms for drug smugglers.

Official data shows 20 metric tons of drugs have been seized in Romania
since 1991, with almost 750 people charged. More than half have been
foreigners, the majority Turks.

Mateescu said Romania's sole medical center treating drug addicts had
registered 480 cases last year. University students who took drugs favored
opium, cocaine and synthetic drugs, with high school pupils opting for
cannabis.

"What's worrying is the switch to hard drugs," he said. "The main reasons
behind the switch are very low prices and free distribution to win the
market."

He said badly equipped customs and police officers were also concerned
about an influx of synthetic drugs, though no clandestine labs had so far
been discovered.

(c) 1998 Reuters

Checked-by: Richard Lake