INTERNET DRUG TRAFFICKING SKYROCKETS, EXPERTS WARN

Drug trafficking on the internet has soared as the medium becomes more
commonplace, presenting far more challenges and dangers than
traditional trafficking, experts have warned.

Interpol officers warn that the internet has created a new customer
base for drug dealers of people who could almost be persuaded by the
sanitised nature of web transactions that they were not doing anything
illegal.

The worldwide policing organisation's Daniel Altmeyer told the World
Forum Against Drugs
in Stockholm, Sweden: "Buying drugs on the internet is really easy.
"You only need an
internet cafe, a credit card, and it's done."

And law enforcement authorities struggle to track down those
responsible since the crime is not only conducted at the point of purchase.

"A website may be hosted in Sweden, but the drug will come from Latin
America and will be shipped by boat to South Africa, with dealers
spread out across Europe," he said. "It's a global network."

He said that while there are no statistics available for the number of
people buying drugs online, sales have rocketed in the past few years,
with most of those buying them being web-savvy and curious users under
the age of 30.

They have access to websites, forums and chatrooms where a link that
can provide them with illegal drugs in just a few clicks of a mouse.

"There's this feeling of being anonymous behind your screen, it
doesn't always feel illegal," said Krister Gaefvert, a police
inspector in Sweden, a leading country in the fight against internet
drug trafficking.

Another Swedish detective, Cecilia Fant, said that drug trafficking
via the web was almost perceived as "a white-collar crime".

"There's no more Pablo Escobar with handcuffs behind his back," she
said.

But the anonymity of it all presents a big risk, Mr Gaefvert
added.

"With traditional trafficking, you knew your dealer, you knew where
the drugs came from. Here, you don't know anything," he said.

A traditional dealer might also provide information on how much of a
certain drug to take, but on the web guidelines can vary
dramatically.

Prescription drugs represent about 90 percent of the illegal
substances sold on the internet, he said, while synthetic drugs such
as amphetamines and ecstasy, as well as cocaine, cannabis and heroin
are easily available.

"You find a lot of products with some comments from fake specialists
and photos of people wearing a white lab coat. The purpose is to look
very serious, just to make the client think that he's not doing
anything illegal," Mr Gaefvert said.