FBIS3-49567 "dreeu008_p_94013"
FBIS-EEU-94-008 Document Type:Daily Report 12 Jan 1994
POLAND

_o_Drug Smuggling Through Poland

94P20199A 94P20199A Article Type:CSO [Editorial Report] "Poland is becoming the best place for distributing narcotics to West Europe, a money-laundering station, and an area for hiding narcotic wares," reports the 19 December issue of the Poznan weekly WPROST. Adam Szyszko, chief of the Second Department of the National Interpol Bureau, told the Poznan weekly that since the outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia, which was the "traditional country that acted as a transit point for drugs to West Europe, the `Polish idea' has attracted drug gangs." Interpol is said to believe that the equivalent of millions of dollars of narcotics-tainted money is in Polish banks. Since 1990, Poland has become a "transit port" for narcotics. WPROST says that Colombian cocaine and West African hashish and marijuana make their way to either the ports of Szczecin and Gdynia or to Warsaw's Okecie airport, from which they are shipped to France, Germany, and Great Britain. Figures on customs seizures indicate that Okecie airport is being used more often than it had been in the past. On 1 December, for example, the Polish Customs Service seized a half-ton of marijuana that had arrived on a KLM flight from Lagos, Nigeria, marked as fish. "Just the fact that the shipment was from Nigeria caused suspicion because we do not import fish from that region into Poland," said one official. Interpol's Szyszko says that the couriers are often protected by diplomatic immunity, which "seriously complicates the situation." The ambassador of Costa Rica himself was caught at Okecie airport with 12 kg of heroin in his baggage. One of the most ingenious plans was devised by German smugglers. As Mr. Szyszko describes it, large parcels of narcotics were to be sent to Poland, where they would be repackaged, receive new papers, and be sent on their way to Hamburg to cover up the sources of the drugs. WPROST points out that the efforts of Polish Customs officials to suppress the drug trade are hampered by Polish law, which does not make mere possession and consumption of drugs a crime. New banking laws have been enacted to prevent the use of Polish banks for drug-money-laundering schemes, but there are still loopholes that permit such schemes to flourish. Wprost states that the involvement of international organized crime has further complicated enforcement efforts. According to Szyszko, these groups are far better organized and technically skilled than are Polish criminal groups. According to another official, both the Italian Mafia and the Colombian Cali cartel are involved in drug smuggling through Poland, with the Cali cartel reportedly using Polish couriers to smuggle narcotics over the Polish-German border." WPROST reports that police consider the production and smuggling of amphetamines to be one of the most dangerous recent developments. In the first quarter of 1993, seven and a half tons of these synthetic drugs were confiscated. Szyszko says that foreign money, principally from the United States, is funding Polish amphetamine production. The 28 December Warsaw daily ZYCIE WARSZAWY reports that special police units have been formed to fight organized crime. These units, which will be several-hundred-policemen strong and will be under the direction of a Bureau for Fighting Organized Crime, were scheduled to become operational on 1 January. The bureau's work will be classified at the top secret level. It already has 26 domestic and foreign groups operating on Polish territory as its targets. Departments of the bureau will be opened in Krakow, Katowice, Wroclaw, Szczecin, Lodz, Gdansk, Poznan, Lublin, Bialystok, Olsztyn, and Bydgoszcz.