SALES OF TRADITIONAL DRUG HELP BIN LADEN, AGENTS SAY

In some places like Somalia and Yemen, the mildly narcotic leaf called qat
or khat is as common and prevalent as beer is here. People carefully select
the freshly picked leaves at outdoor markets and chew the bitter greens at
afternoon socials, enjoying the mild high while chatting away the day.

Now federal law-enforcement agents say that some of the money from qat
trafficking among local Somalian immigrants is finding its way into the
coffers of Middle Eastern terrorists, including Osama bin Laden.

Yet qat use in Seattle is no cause for alarm, say the few cops and
prosecutors who have actually heard of it. It's a niche drug, with a demand
limited to the immigrants who bring the culture of qat with them. In short,
it's not going to become the next crack cocaine or methamphetamine.

Qat has been described as a mild cross between cocaine and opium, at first
creating a feeling of quiet euphoria followed a few hours later by a rush
of energy.

The delicate leaves lose their potency in a matter of days after picking,
making it difficult to import halfway around the world. Qat grows only in
the specialized microclimates of East Africa and Saudi Arabia. And it takes
bushels of the superfresh plant to make qat chewers happy.

"It's not a priority for any of the drug-fighting organizations in the
Northwest," said Doug Whalley, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted
one of only a small handful of qat-trafficking cases in the area.

"I suppose it could catch on, but there's probably a cultural gap between
the people who use it and the average young high-school kids."

After U.S. Customs agents this week raided a Somali-owned money-wiring
office in Rainier Valley, federal sources said the Bush administration
suspects that global money-transfer networks were used to launder money
made in the local qat trade.

Qat has deep roots in the social fabric of Yemen, Ethiopia and parts of
Somalia. Some people find it so central to their lives that they build
special rooms in their homes for qat gatherings. Governments have tried to
crack down on its use to no avail, citing the economic effect of its work
force spending half of each day idly chewing qat.

"It is to Yemeni society what sipping tea is to England and having a beer
is here," said Tony Horwitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose 1991
book, "Baghdad Without a Map," explores the qat culture.

"It doesn't taste very good, and you suck on it and spit a lot," he said.
"But it's sort of a talky drug. I think it's a mistake to liken it to any
hard drug. It's more an Irish-coffee kind of feeling. You feel very up but
also very mellow at the same time."

So it stands to reason that immigrants from qat countries would bring the
traditional habit with them when they come to America, police say.

But drug police rarely catch the people who import the qat, often rushed
from Yemen in a suitcase full of wet towels to keep it fresh.

In one of the few local qat busts on record, two British college students
were caught with a suitcase of qat as they got off a plane at
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport about four years ago, Whalley said.

The students had been recruited by a man in England to carry the 70 pounds
of qat to Seattle and then call a phone number to reach an anonymous
contact - likely a Somali - whom police never found. Their reward was free
airfare. They both got about two months behind bars.

Going after the local networks doesn't make sense given more pressing drug
problems, prosecutors say. The qat circles are tight and social, friends
and family who keep it to themselves.

"Those are the ones to whom it's worth it to go through the hassle to ship
it," said Joe Solseng, a King County deputy prosecutor who saw only a
couple of qat cases in the five years he headed his office's drug unit.

"It's very culturally specific. It would be a hard drug to develop a new
clientele for. It's not worth it to anyone."

Police also know that the active narcotic ingredient in qat, cathinone,
begins disappearing from the leaf within two days of being picked and is
gone altogether within about week. So testing the leaf for the actual
illicit substance is often a problem.

But that also means that qat won't ever be a street scourge for rank-
and-file cops to fight.

"We never see it all," said Sgt. Dawn Grout of the King County sheriff's
drug unit. "It's not one of the big drugs of choice here."