AFGHAN SCOURGE GROWING

Heroin From Poppies Making Its Way To Canada

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 counter-narcotics 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 under the Access to Information Act.

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

Paul Nadeau, the director of the RCMP's drug branch in Ottawa, said
about 60% 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 km 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, 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 kilos a haul. The new
traffickers typically prefer smaller, but more frequent, shipments, Nadeau said.