SERIES: DRUGS UNCOVERED: A GLOBAL BUSINESS

The production, supply and use of illegal drugs is an international
industry that touches every corner of the world

London, Liverpool and Birmingham Britain's main distribution centres.
Commercial cultivation of cannabis (particularly the more potent
'skunk') is widespread throughout the UK.

The Channel Tunnel, Dover, Felixstowe, Fokestone and Harwich Most
heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs enter the UK from the Continent
via a cross-Channel port in multi-kilo loads, concealed in freight
vehicles or carried in passenger vehicles and baggage on
roll-on/roll-off shipping.

United States There are about 19.9 million users of illicit drugs in
the US. Mexican trafficking groups control distribution of the
majority of drugs; most enter through the south-west border region and
are stored in big cities such as Dallas, Los Angeles, Houston and Phoenix.

Jamaica Direct flights from Jamaica to the UK are used by drug mules,
who carry on average 1-2kg either internally or in their baggage. The
cocaine is brought to the Caribbean from Colombia by criminal groups
using go-fast boats.

Guinea-Bissau The tiny west African country has been called the
world's first narco-state (controlled by drug cartels). Cocaine from
Colombia is transported either by sea to the Iberian Peninsula, or
overland to north Africa. Couriers also move significant quantities in
'little-and-often' shipments via air to the UK.

Colombia Of the 984 tonnes of cocaine produced globally in 2006, an
estimated 610 tonnes came from Colombia. Production in Peru and
Bolivia is thought to be increasingly under the control of Colombian
criminal groups.

Netherlands Europe's main secondary distribution centre for heroin and
cocaine. Many brokers organise bulk supplies to the UK from here. Also
- - along with Belgium - the world's primary producer of ecstasy (almost
all ecstasy consumed in Britain comes from the Netherlands).

China Main supplier of precursor chemicals such as PMK (piperonyl
methyl ketone), which is used in ecstasy, and ephedrine, which is used
in methylamphetamine. While smuggling of heroin into China from south
east Asia has declined, there has been a rise in drugs coming from
Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Afghanistan Ninety per cent of the world's heroin supply originates
here. About 70 per cent of the UK's heroin comes overland via Iran and
Turkey.

Pakistan Twenty-five per cent of the heroin seized in the UK has
arrived by air from Pakistan, carried by couriers in small packages,
typically of 1-2kg. Packages of heroin are also sent from Pakistan via
post and fast parcel services, often to the Midlands and north east of
England.

Australia In 2007, some 4.4 per cent of the adult population of
Australia took ecstasy, making the nation the world's biggest consumer
of the drug.

. All data gathered from: the United Kingdom Threat Assessment
2008-09, published by the Serious Organised Crime Agency; the US 2007
National Survey on Drug Use and Health; the US National Drug Threat
Assessment 2008; and the UN World Drug Report 2008.