FBIS3-41121
"jptdd005__l94058"
JPRS-TDD-94-005-L
Document Type:JPRS
Document Title:Narcotics
1 February 1994
EAST EUROPE
REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Growing East European Drug Market, Mafia Exploitation Examined
BR2501162194 Amsterdam DE VOLKSKRANT in Dutch 22 Jan 94 p 4
BR2501162194
Amsterdam DE VOLKSKRANT
Language: Dutch
Article Type:BFN
[Article by Cees Zoon: "Mafia Exploits East European Drugs
Market"]
[Text] Prague -- The money changers who once made the
famous St. Wencelas Square in Prague unsafe have long found a
new trade. The words "Wechseln?" or "Change?" no longer pass
their lips, even though a tradition continues in their working
methods. Passers-by who let themselves be led along to a dark
passage or porch are not offered local money, but pure heroin or
amphetamines.
The Czech capital has built up a serious drugs scene. Prague
is home to most of the addicts in the Czech Republic, who
according to reliable estimates have grown to number around
30,000 people. The great majority of them use stuff made in
local laboratories, like "brown," which contains codeine, or
"ceko," which is sometimes called "the crack of the East."
But the biggest growth is to be found in the number of
regular users of heroin and cocaine, substances which could not
be found in communist times, but now are widely available.
Prague is not exceptional in this respect. The same applies to
Warsaw, where the drugs mafia is also working the market with
verve. In Poland the number of hard drug addicts has increased
to 40,000.
The fall of communism and the opening of the East European
borders has not only created a market for Western industry, but
also for the international mafia. Eastern Europe has become the
most important transit region for drugs into Western Europe and
at the same time a market with phenomenal perspectives.
The underworld has put down showy roots in Prague and
Warsaw.
The Prague police think that more than 3,000 mafiosi from
Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, the former Yugoslavia and now Colombia
have started to compete with local organized crime.
However, the Chinese (whom the police call the most
dangerous
group) and the camorra are increasingly reported. The Home
Affairs Ministry said that last autumn the Italian and Russian
mafia set up a joint venture in Prague, with the Italians
providing the brains (specialists in laundering drugs money) and
the Russians providing the muscles (Afghanistan veterans as
killers).
The drugs route from east to west has shifted from the
Balkans to central Europe. Yugoslavia was traditionally the
transit route, but when war broke out the transporters found an
alternative route. They were helped in their choice by the
defective legislation and police equipment in countries like
Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland.
The greater part of the drugs following this route come from
the golden triangle in south-east Asia and the Asiatic republics
which until recently were part of the Soviet Union. But the
Colombian cartels also see the usefulness of a detour, as
witnessed by the recent catches in Polish harbors.
The number of drugs shipments intercepted is increasing
rapidly in every East European country. The Hungarian police
seized 692 kg of cocaine and heroin last year, nearly 10 times
more than the previous year. The same picture can be seen
throughout all of eastern Europe.
Of course this is only a minimal part of the quantities
which
are passing through all the borders and reaching Western Europe.
According to the International Drug Control Bureau in Vienna,
just how much the supply to Western Europe is increasing can be
seen more clearly from the market situation there: The quality
of heroin is increasing and the price dropping significantly.
However, the mafia no longer sees the region as a
straightforward transit station, but is working hard at creating
a new market. The result is that in Prague, heroin is offered
at a "promotion price" of around 2,500 crowns (160 guilders) per
gram.
This sort of strategy will certainly encourage drug tourism.
In nearby Bavaria, for example, five times more is paid for a
gram of heroin. In the Bulgarian capital Sofia, users can buy a
gram of heroin for between 800 and 2,000 leva (between 50 and
125 guilders). In Slovakia, the police have seen dealers giving
away their goods free of charge to secondary school pupils.
The Czech Republic and Poland are simultaneously producers
and exporters of synthetic drugs. While local drug addicts
prefer the switch to heroin and cocaine, 75 percent of the
amphetamines consumed on the Berlin drugs scene come from
laboratories in the Czech Republic and Poland in particular, for
example.
Legislation is a problem everywhere. In most countries drug
dealing is illegal, but the "possession of small quantities for
personal use" is not.
The law is to be changed in Poland and the Czech Republic,
but it remains questionable whether that will alter much. The
customs authorities and police are fairly powerless against the
gangs who deal with supply and distribution. Recently a series
of treaties were signed by East European countries among
themselves and with international organizations like Interpol.
The police in the whole region are currently no match for
the
mafia, which is better organized and equipped. It has the most
modern communication equipment and a pool of fast cars. The
police has to make do with telephone lines which hardly work and
ramshackle cars.
Up to now the Polish Smuggle computer program, specially
developed for the Central Customs Council, had no separate drugs
category: Drugs smuggling came under the category of "others."
It was only this month that a new program started to be used
which includes the new headings "drugs" and "arms."
The police in Bulgaria, next to the border with Turkey, are
at the forefront in the fight against drugs. But here too there
are problems. To cut expenditure, only 240 liters of petrol is
available every month for each police car. Once it has been
used, the car stays in the garage.