RCMP WARN OF HEROIN THREAT

Drug Produced In Afghanistan 'Increasingly Ending Up' In Canada,
Documents 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 despite millions of dollars from Ottawa to fund
the war-torn country's counternarcotics efforts, newly released
documents reveal.

"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 separately by The Canadian Press under
the Access to Information Act.

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

Paul Nadeau, the 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 Myanmar, 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, Mr. Nadeau said.

New traffickers, who Mr. 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,
Mr. Nadeau said. The strategy, it seems, is akin to throwing as much
as possible against the wall to see what sticks.

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

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, Mr. Nadeau said: via the porous border between
Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then on to India and, finally, Canada;
and, from Afghanistan to western Africa, then through the United
States into Canada.

The Foreign Affairs and Defence Department briefings differ on the
windfall that opium production and trafficking yields in Afghanistan,
estimating it is equivalent to between 25 and 60 per cent of the
Afghan economy.

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

Afghanistan's swelling opium crop might lower heroin's street value
in Canada, Mr. 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."

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