AFGHAN HEROIN HITTING OUR STREETS, MOUNTIES WARN

Proliferation Of Drug 'Directly Threatens' Canadians, Two Newly
Released Federal Agency Reports Reveal

The Mounties have warned at least two federal agencies that Afghan
heroin is "increasingly" making its way to Canada and poses a direct
threat to the public, newly released documents reveal.

This is despite the millions of dollars from Ottawa to fund
Afghanistan's counter-narcotics efforts.

"The RCMP informs us that Afghan heroin is increasingly ending up on,
or is destined for, Canadian streets," say foreign affairs and
defence department briefings obtained by The Canadian Press under the
Access to Information Act.

The Afghan-produced heroin "directly threatens" Canadians, say the
identically worded briefings.

Paul Nadeau, director of the RCMP's drug branch in Ottawa, said about
60 per cent of the heroin on Canadian streets comes from Afghanistan.

"Keep in mind, though, that when we seize it, it doesn't have a stamp
on it that says where it came from," he said.

Rather, it's the investigative tracing of smuggling routes that
reveals the drug's country of origin.

Until a few years ago, most heroin came from an opium-producing
region in Southeast Asia called the "golden triangle," a mountainous
area of around 350,000 square kilometres overlapping Burma, Laos,
Vietnam and Thailand.

In recent years, organized crime groups from Southeast Asia have
taken to trafficking synthetic drugs, such as ecstasy, which have
more users - and more profitability - than heroin, Nadeau said.

New traffickers, who Nadeau said are often, but not always, of Indian
origin, have stepped in, bringing with them new shipping methods.

The Southeast Asian traffickers were notorious for brazen heroin
shipments, sometimes totalling up to 100 kilograms a haul. The new
traffickers typically prefer smaller, but more frequent, shipments,
Nadeau said.

"It seems to be involving the classic couriers, suitcases at the
airport, smaller amounts, but no doubt, more shipments coming in."

Roughly 92 per cent of the world's heroin comes from opium poppies
grown in Afghanistan, according to the 2007 World Drug Report,
released in June by the United Nations Office on Drugs.

Afghan heroin typically flows into Canada through two main
trafficking arteries, Nadeau said: via the porous border between
Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then on to India and, finally, Canada;
or from Afghanistan to western Africa, then through the U.S. into Canada.

The foreign affairs and defence department briefings differ on the
opium production and trafficking yields in Afghanistan, estimating it
is equivalent to between 25 and 60 per cent of the Afghan economy.

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ambra Dickie said Ottawa has pledged
about $57 million to fund Afghan counter-narcotics efforts, including
an $18.5 million program to promote alternate livelihoods in the
country's volatile Kandahar province, where Canadian troops are stationed.

The Afghan counter-narcotics programs are co-ordinated by that
country's national drug control strategy. But the drug control
strategy is badly flawed, said Thomas Pietschmann, a researcher who
authored the UN drug report.

"It's clear: There is a disaster there. Nobody can say that it's
working. It's not working," Pietschmann said from his office in
Vienna, Austria.

Afghanistan's counter-narcotics minister stepped down last month
after the country's opium poppy crop ballooned under his watch.
Habibullah Qaderi's resignation came as Western embassies and the
Afghan government hold meetings about how to fight the country's
growing drug problem.

Pietschmann said it is "extremely logical" that there's more Afghan
heroin on Canadian streets because of a spike in the central Asian
nation's opium poppy production.

"It would be the most logical thing to expect, on the Canadian
market, that you would see far more Afghan heroin landing on the
shores of Canada," he said.

Afghanistan's swelling opium crop might lower heroin's street value
in Canada, Nadeau said, adding he doubts more people will start using
heroin because it's cheaper and there's more of it.

"Heroin is not what it used to be. There's a certain stigma attached
to it from the user population," he said. "But it's definitely a
problem in certain major centres."

The Foreign Affairs briefing concedes there's no quick fix to
Afghanistan's drug quandary: "There are no simple solutions to a
problem that has taken decades to develop."

At first glance, Canada doesn't seem to have a heroin problem. Less
than one per cent of Canadians have used the drug at some point in
their lives, according to the latest report from Health Canada and
the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

The RCMP says it seized 60 kilograms of heroin in Canada in 2003, 77
kilograms in 2004, and 83 kilograms in 2005.