'GLOBAL DRUG TRAFFICKING EXPLODING'

Crack Down On Money-Laundering: Interpol

International dealing in illegal drugs is exploding as drugs become
cheaper, purer and deadlier, a police conference in Toronto was told
yesterday.

Interpol drug consultant Ramachandra Sunda said heroin is considered a
serious problem in 150 of the 177 member nations of the international
police service.

And Southeast Asian drug syndicates, traditionally growers of opium and
makers of heroin, are shifting to making synthetic drugs.

"Global drug trafficking is exploding, based on seizure data and
statistics," Sunda told the Asian Organized Crime Conference at the
Sheraton Centre. "It's exploding because it's big money."

He said the power of international crime groups has "gone beyond
expectations and imaginations" of the international law-enforcement
community.

With the development of new trafficking routes, new syndicates, increasing
demand and supply, Sunda said law enforcement will have to become globally
oriented.

He said Interpol has urged member nations to adapt uniform money laundering
laws: "Who is the money-launderer? He's unseen, unknown, unheard of," Sunda
said. "I see the laws, the laws are good. (But) how many money launderers
have been convicted?

"The biggest privatization in the history of the world is under way today,"
Sunda said. "Drug syndicates and criminal organizations are investing this
illegal money in legitimate enterprises in several countries."

He said laundered money is currently part of the $170 billion U.S. flowing
among the world's financial institutions daily.

Sunda noted methamphetamines are being produced in large quantities on the
Thai-Myanmar border, "because there's a big market for methamphetamines in
southeast Asia."

"Synthetic drugs are going to be the nightmare of the millennium," Sunda said.