Russia: The Next Target of the Drug Cartel?

[CVX]

THE HEROIN OF OUR TIME

This year, the drug trade may compare with the profits of the oil sector

Author: Natalia Shiryaeva, Vladimir Rudakov

[from WPS Monitoring Agency, ]www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

RUSSIA IS BELIEVED TO HAVE 3-4 MILLION DRUG USERS. OVER 60% OF ADDICTS ARE YOUNG PEOPLE UNDER 30, AND 20% ARE SCHOOLCHILDREN. THE AVERAGE DRUG ADDICT ACQUIRES THIS LETHAL HABIT AT THE AGE OF 15-17. RUSSIA'S LOCATION HAS MADE IT A PARADISE FOR DRUG DEALERS.

Drugs are to be found everywhere in Russia nowadays - at marketplaces, in the subway, at schools and universities. There were fewer than 40,000 addicts in Russia six years ago, according to official sources. These days, there are over 500,000. Expert estimates accepted at the highest official levels indicate, however, that there must be seven to eight times more drug addicts in the country than that, or 3-4 million. Over 60% of addicts are young people under 30, and 20% are schoolchildren. The average drug addict acquires this lethal habit at the age of 15-17.

Russia's location has made it a paradise for drug dealers. The country is so huge that drugs are grown here (the climate permits it), used, and shipped across it (after all, Russia is right between Asia where drugs are manufactured and Europe where they are actively used). Drug turnover in Russia amounted to $1.5 billion back in 1996, and to between $8 billion and $11 billion in 2001. According to some estimates, it may reach $15-20 billion in 2002. It should be noted that the sum is almost triple what the state spends on law enforcement activities every year.

The data compiled by the European Union indicates that $400-500 billion worth of drugs are sold worldwide every year, or one-tenth of global trade turnover. According to Interpol, this sector is actually larger than the oil or gas industries.

Producers themselves end up with only 2-5% of the dividends. It is mediators and wholesale dealers who earn the most. Price of the drug grows 60 times en route from the manufacturer to the first mediator, right in the region of production. The price multiplies 600 times by the time the drug appears on the streets, somewhere in the United States or in Europe.

Needless to say, all this requires a smoothly working servicing structure.

Experts maintain that the structure of Russian drug cartels usually resembles that of their foreign analogs. It comprises three levels, the text-book mafia pyramid.

The men usually called drug barons are at the top of the pyramid. Four to six men who do not have direct contact with the stuff and who do not use drugs themselves as a rule. That makes their conviction next to impossible. They plan operations and launder dividends.

Just below them are about a dozen men who collect dividends, supervise the process, recruit new men, and handle problems as they arise.

Local bosses are on the next rung of the ladder - they are large and medium wholesale dealers controlling this or that territory. These men command local groups, provide safety of couriers, protect shipments, and coordinate retail sellers.

Retail sellers are at the lower level. There are thousands of them in Moscow alone. Selling drugs in the streets, they dream of climbing at least to the next level. These are usually men between 16 and 22. It should be noted as well that the men comprising the whole pyramid do not usually use drugs themselves.

Drug addicts are the last level. They usually sell small packages too, merely to earn a dose.

In order to get enough doses for himself, each addict has to involve about 15 people into the system every year. In this case he or she will be able to earn the needed doses without paying cash for them.

Most drugs (up to 99%) come to Russia nowadays from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Tajikistan is the unquestionable leader here, followed by Kyrgyzstan. Afghani heroin comes to Russia via these countries as a rule. Economic crises, unemployment, and unbelievably low living standards (with the average monthly salaries between $5 and $20) in these countries have conspired to make drug proliferation the most popular kind of crime.

Cocaine comes to Russia from Latin America. According to the police, however, cocaine market in Russia limited due to the cost of the drug. The cocaine that ends up in Russia is usually of high quality and costs about $150 a gram.

Synthetic drugs like ecstasy and amphetamines are brought from the Netherlands, Poland, and Germany. Ecstasy is particularly popular. These pills are available at night clubs for $20-30 a tablet.

Specialists say that Russia is not like Columbia yet, in the sense that it does not yet have a single leading drug cartel actively participating in the economy and politics. But Russians are working on it. Leaders of the Russian underworld met with the most influential drug cartels from the United States and Latin America on at least four occasions over the last two or three years. According to what information is available, they discussed globalization of cooperation and establishment of politically favorable conditions for cartels on the national level.

The Russian market is split among Russian gangs, gungs from former Soviet republics, Afghanistan, and China. Law enforcement agencies say that the Tajik-Afghani mafia almost fully controls heroin sales in Moscow and some other regions. Other ethnic gangs deal in cocaine and synthetic drugs.

All dividends end up in the hands of drug barons usually hiding in Tajikistan, Pakistan, or Afghanistan. It is the so called overseers who operate in Russia, controlling sellers and regulating the flows of drugs that come to Russian cities.

This is how dividends are split. About 50% are spent on acquisition of new consignments. Some money is set aside for corrupt policemen and state officials on the mafia payroll and for bribes. Neither are other current expenses forgotten: money to buy weapons and ammunition, to organize burials and pay compensation to the families of dead members of the organization, and so on. Some money (about 10%) is set aside for those members who were convicted and jailed. The rest of the money is paid to members of the organization as salaries or kept by the baron.

Specialists say that Russian drug dealers have already learned to launder money. Annual volume exceeds $1 billion. Money is laundered through mafia-controlled or owned restaurants, gambling establishments, and so on. Since the mid-1990s, the mafia has been buying interests in Russian enterprises.

Paradoxically enough, a great many of the people and structures that are supposed to fight drugs have no real interest in doing so.

According to experts, there is already a powerful drug lobby on a high level in Russia. Lobbyists apply pressure to federal and local parliamentarians preventing amendment of the acting legislation. As a rule, the lobbyists use quite logical and persuasive arguments.

The mafia has its men in law enforcement agencies as well. According to the data compiled by Internal Security Service of the Interior Ministry, the existing tariffs for protection range between $500 and several thousand dollars a month. Whenever a policeman on the beat detains a retail seller, the latter's freedom is bought for $1,000.

Even officials of private narcological establishments frequently find their own prosperity depending on the demand. Cure of addiction to drugs is the most profitable sector of medicine. According to the International association against drugs and drug mafia, global turnover of anti-drug services is approaching $10 billion a year.

Statistics make it clear, however, that only 5-6% of addicts get cured in Russia (i.e. stay clean for over a year). There are many ads on TV promoting all sorts of clinics for addicts. This is another paradox, but law enforcement agencies say that most of the clinics are owned by drug cartels.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that drug business is intertwined nowadays with the "terrorist international" headed by Islamic radicals. The latter openly admit that they view dealing in drugs as one of the elements of the global jihad against infidels and the hated Western civilization. The money earned in this manner is used to finance terrorist organizations worldwide.

http://www.cdi.org/russia/235-16-pr.cfm