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.