Eastern Horizons News on the Fight Against Drugs and Crime No
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ODCCP Eastern Horizons News on the fight against drugs and crime No. 10 in East Asia and the Pacific June 2002 Cambodia and New Zealand Work To Foil Heroin By Mail Scam UN/ODCCP Counters Money Laundering New Gross Criminal Product and Illicit Business Routes Around the Golden Triangle Sex and Drugs, But No Rock ‘N’ Roll “We Know What Works” in Reducing HIV/AIDS Vulnerability Wa Region to Become Drug-free by 2005: But What’s Next? Down and Out in Bangkok - Glue Sniffing Child Photo: Mr. Jetjaras Na Ranong Courtesy: Bangkok Post and Work to Foil HEROIN by Mail Scam The trafficking of illicit drugs from Cambodia to countries in the Asia-Pacific The Cambodia-New Zealand Trafficking Route region takes various forms. The latest case to come to light is the sending of heroin by mail from the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, to New Zealand. MONGOLIA Police in New Zealand seized a kilo of heroin O.P.R. KOREA earlier this year sent by a Khmer-New Zea- REP. OF KOREA land citizen and have been cooperating with P.R. CHINA JAPAN Cambodian authorities to apprehend the suspect. Deputy Prime Minister, and Chair- man of the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD) in Cambodia, Sar Kheng, told MYANMAR LAO P.D.R. a meeting of provincial drug control commit- THAILAND tee officials in March that, “this is not the VIETNAM first time criminals have done this and the CAMBODIA PHILIPPINES issue has rightly shown the size of the drug BRUNEI danger.” MALAYSIA Teng Savong, Secretary-General of the SINGAPORE NACD, accepts that Cambodia is now a major PAPUA NEW GUINEA transit route for illicit drugs. He recently told INDONESIA the news agency Reuters, “The Golden Tri- EAST TIMOR angle is now the main source of drugs smug- PACIFIC ISLAND STATES gled through Cambodia to the West. [Drug traffickers] import and re-export from here, but we don’t know how much.” AUSTRALIA The NACD’s Secretary-General is also reported to have indicated that corrupt Cam- bodian authorities, including police and mil- itary, were involved in the drug trafficking networks. The UNDCP Cambodia Country Pro- file (available at http://www.undcp.un.or.th), released in March 2001, reflects this view of the involvement of some elements in the law enforcement community in this illegal trade. – Graham Shaw, UN/ODCCP, Cambodia 2 UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME of Wrath During the years of the Vietnam War Laos achieved the unpleasant privi- Australian National lege to become the most bombed country in human history. The country received an equivalent of one metric Illicit Drug ton of bombs per person. Needless to say that it took the Americans quite a number of missions to deliver such a payload and obviously every mission on the Way carried the risk of being hit by enemy fire. In fact, the local resistance did manage to shoot down quite a number A new Commonwealth Government Drugs The TV ads themselves can be both dra- of planes. A fact, which slowly takes us Campaign, promoted by the Australian matic and frightening. However, the main to the point. Government, is now targeting parents to emphasis is on communication. One exam- High up in the Lao mountains in be more alert to the seriousness of the ple is an ad where what appears to be a Houphan Province UNDCP and the Lao drug problem. It provides the information family discussing emerges to be actors in a Government are implementing an alter- parents need for discussions about drugs, television programme, which consequently native development project. The area together with suggested ways of talking is discussed by a second family watching is impoverished highland and there is with children about drugs. the show. The ad advocates that families a lack of most things. However, one It is believed that such advice can should grab the chance to discuss drug resource is abundant – scrap metal. strengthen families’ resistance to drugs. issues, when drugs appear in television. The local villagers use scrap-metal from The campaign will feature television adver- Together with the drug treatment and wreckages of air-planes to produce tisements, print advertisements, and a law enforcement programs currently belts and other daily necessities. booklet provided in several languages. The underway as parts of the National Illicit The belts are produced by the vil- booklet is currently going to every house- Drug Strategy, the advocacy initiative rep- lagers using local technology. First they hold in Australia. The message focuses on resents the largest single national initiative melt scrap-metal collected in the vicin- the difference between childhood dreams in Australia’s history to fight drugs. ity in order to produce metallic wire. and the dangers of drug use including the The wire is then manually converted risk of death. – Patricia M. Budiyanto, UNDCP, Bangkok into belts, which is used by the local women. The villagers produce about 500 belts of a variety of sizes and lengths annually. The market price for HANDS the belts varies between 2 to 4 US$. – Peter Lunding, UNDCP, Bangkok 45 countries meeting under the aus- pices of the UN sponsored Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agen- cies (HONLEA) held in Sydney last year. The mural is based on artwork by Mr. Mark Huddleston, a member of Aus- tralia’s indigenous community, who had been working with the Australian Federal Police. The artwork shows an outer ring A mural based on the handprints of the of hands, symbolizing people from differ- representatives of drug law enforcement ent lands, who have traveled many paths agencies covering most of the Asia Pacific to the central meeting place. The meet- Region was presented on 20 March, ing was taking place under the protection 2002 to UNDCP Bangkok by Commis- of a platypus – the corporate symbol of sioner Mr. Mick Keelty of the Australian the Australian Federal Police. Federal Police. The mural is permanently placed in The mural came out of a four-day the United National Conference Centre in meeting involving 140 delegates from Bangkok and accessible to the public. EASTERN HORIZONS • JUNE 2002 3 The Thai delegation attending the cross-border cooperation Phnom Penh meeting Making Borders A Barrier Against Drugs and Crime Recent reports from the anti-narcotic ments to expedite their illicit trade in illicit police in Cambodia have indicated that drugs by getting their harmful cargo to market methamphetamine trafficking from Laos much easier and quicker than previously. into the northern Cambodian province Bilateral cross-border meetings were of Stung Treng has now taken over as held between April 22-26, 2002, in Phnom the primary route for this illicit trade. Penh involving officials from Thailand, Viet- Up until about a year ago, most ‘yaba’ nam and Cambodia where agreement was trafficked into Cambodia came from made to set-up three BLOs within the next Thailand via the northwestern provinces few months. Plans are also under discus- of Banteay Meanchey and Battambang sion with Cambodia and Laos to establish a Vietnamese participants at the meeting in Phnom Penh as well as the former Khmer Rouge BLO on their border by the end of this year. area of Pailin; in addition, this synthetic opment of Cross-Border Law Enforcement Mr. Akaneevut Sisawasdi, Vice Gover- drug was smuggled through the western Cooperation in East Asia. BLOs will function nor of Trat Province, said after Thailand’s Cambodian province of Koh Kong. as focal points to improve the effectiveness discussions with Cambodia, “now the two of modern border control methods, includ- countries have many similar problems. It ince 2001, drug traffickers appear to ing investigation and interdiction tech- is important that we have closer co-opera- be extending their logistical opera- niques, and to develop joint operational tion to prevent drugs from being trafficked Stions to take advantage of the lack of activities by law enforcement officials in from one country to another.” law enforcement capacity along the remote key border areas. As part of this developing cooperation border of Laos and Cambodia. Unconfirmed An additional factor in the increasing mechanism, supported with funding from reports suggest that methamphetamine and amounts of methamphetamine available on the Government of Japan, the UNDCP will heroin entering Cambodia along the River the streets of the major urban centres of provide office and communications equip- Mekong and associated road network origi- the country is the opening up of Cambo- ment together with vehicles and will join nates in Myanmar. dia to trade, investment and tourism. The forces with subregional project Enhance- The drug traffickers are likely to face a building of a new highway between the ment of Drug Law Enforcement Training in setback in the coming months through the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, through East Asia to provide computer-based train- establishment of Border Liaison Offices the remote western province of Koh Kong ing in law enforcement techniques to assist (BLOs) at strategic locations along Cam- and across a new bridge to the Thai border officers at all levels to increase the interdic- bodia’s border with neighbouring coun- at Trat is a welcome development. tion of criminal activities along the border, tries as part of the UN Drug Control However, it also brings with it the danger including the trafficking of illicit drugs and Programme’s subregional project Devel- of unscrupulous people using such develop- precursor chemicals. Looking to the future, the head of the UNODCCP Liaison Office in Cambodia, Mr. Bengt Juhlin, told the meetings that, “although the Border Liaison Offices today have a mandate focussing on drug traffick- ing, I can see that steps might be taken in the future to expand the mandate to cover other illegal cross-border matters such as trafficking of persons or smuggling of weap- ons, etc., because once the cross-border system is in place it can be adjusted and applied for many different purposes.” The Cambodian delegation at their meeting with Thailand - Graham Shaw, UN/ODCCP, Cambodia 4 UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME UN/ODCCP Counters Laundering : Criminals Need to “Launder” the Proceeds of Crime n today’s globalized economy, organized United States.