Extent of Licit Trade in Precursors and the Latest Trends in Precursor Trafficking
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PRECURSORS III. Extent of licit trade in precursors of substances in Table I and Table II on form D is mandatory, pursuant to article 12, paragraph 12, of the and the latest trends in 1988 Convention, and should represent the most precursor trafficking comprehensive set of precursor seizure data available. 66. The present chapter provides an overview of the major A. Substances used in the illicit trends and developments in the licit trade in precursor manufacture of amphetamine-type chemicals and in trafficking therein. It contains a summary of stimulants information on seizures and cases of diversion or attempted diversion from international trade, as well as activities 1. Substances used in the illicit manufacture of associated with illicit drug manufacture. The analysis is based amphetamines on data provided by Governments on form D for 2016 and through PEN Online, Project Prism and Project Cohesion and 69. Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are among the most PICS, as well as in other information from Governments, widely used precursors for the illicit manufacture of including national reports, and covers the period up to methamphetamine. They are also both used legitimately for 1 November 2017. medical purposes and are therefore among the most frequently and widely traded of the substances in Table I of the 1988 67. Readers are reminded that the intention of the present Convention, in the form of both raw materials and chapter is to describe trends and developments with a view to pharmaceutical preparations. P-2-P, phenylacetic acid and addressing gaps and weaknesses in precursor control APAAN, as well as a number of non-scheduled substances, may mechanisms. More important than seizures and the amounts be used as alternatives to ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in seized, which reflect successful diversions, is the information illicit methamphetamine manufacture (see paras. 114–124 and generated from a seizure, a stopped or suspended shipment, a annex IV). theft, an attempted diversion or a suspicious order or even enquiry, as it is critical for preventing future diversions (a) Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine of chemicals. INCB therefore again encourages all governments to improve the quality and Licit trade comprehensiveness of their annual form D submissions and 70. During the reporting period, information regarding to make better use of PICS. more than 5,000 planned shipments of ephedrine and 68. INCB also observes increasing discrepancies between pseudoephedrine was submitted through the PEN Online official information shared by Governments on different system. Of those notifications, 33 per cent involved substances occasions, including through form D, country reports and in bulk and 67 per cent involved pharmaceutical preparations, presentations at meetings of the subsidiary bodies of respectively. The shipments consisted of a total of about the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and annual report 1,020 tons of pseudoephedrine and slightly more than 100 tons questionnaires and individual seizure reports. INCB would of ephedrine; they originated in 38 exporting countries and like to remind Governments that the reporting of seizures territories and were destined for 165 importing countries and territories. As in the past, the largest exporter in terms of __________________ volume was India, followed by Germany, and the largest 14 For further details about PICS and the minimum action importer was the United States, followed by Switzerland. for sharing information about precursor incidents through the system, see E/INCB/2015/4, box 3 (p. 11). 71. Between 1 November 2016 and 1 November 2017, almost 320 planned shipments of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine were objected to through the PEN Online system by the authorities of 40 importing countries, often for administrative reasons or, as in the case of Iraq, because the competent authorities had no control over the part of the country in which the importing companies were located. The competent authorities in Iraq objected to 71 pre-export notifications for 12 CHAPTER III. EXTENT OF LICIT TRADE IN PRECURSORS AND THE LATEST TRENDS IN PRECURSOR TRAFFICKING that reason. On its form D for 2016, India reported stopped Trafficking shipments of a total of 1.1 tons of pseudoephedrine that had been destined for Iraq and northern Cyprus. 73. The amounts of ephedrines seized in 2016 continued to fluctuate between 35 and 40 tons, much lower than the amounts 72. Canada was the only country that reported thefts of reported seized in the preceding five-year period. At the ephedrine and pseudoephedrine on form D for 2016. substance level, there continued to be significant fluctuations in the statistics for different types of ephedrines (see figure VII). Figure VII. Seizures of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine reported by Governments on form D, 2012–2016 50,000 33 35 32 32 45,000 31 31 30 40,000 25 24 35,000 25 30,000 22 18 22 20 25,000 20,000 15 15,000 10 Amount seized (kilograms) seized Amount 10,000 5 5,000 0 0 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Pseudoephedrine preparations a Number of Governments reporting seizures Pseudoephedrine (raw material) Ephedrine preparations a Ephedrine (raw material) Number of Governments reporting seizures of ephedrines Number of Governments reporting seizures of pseudoephedrines a Excludes preparations reported as tablets. 74. In 2016, 23 countries and territories reported, on their amounted to more than 4 tons. A single country, Thailand, form D, seizing raw (bulk) ephedrine amounting to more than accounted for more than 95 per cent of those seizures. 5.8 tons, and 14 countries and territories reported seizures of nearly 25 tons of ephedrine in the form of pharmaceutical East and South-East Asia preparations. India reported seizing a record amount of more 76. During the period 2012–2016, global seizures of than 21 tons of preparations containing ephedrine. The second- ephedrines were dominated by seizures in East and South-East largest amount of preparations containing ephedrine seized was Asia. Within the region, China accounted for by far the largest reported by China (more than 3.3 tons). China also accounted proportion of seized ephedrine (both as raw material and in the for the largest amount of ephedrine raw material seized (more form of pharmaceutical preparations). During that period, than 1.4 tons), followed by New Zealand (1.2 tons) and China noted widespread illicit manufacture of ephedrine from Australia (1.1 tons). The amount of ephedrine (raw material) 2-bromopropiophenone, an internationally non-scheduled seized in China in 2016 was the lowest in 15 years. substance that was placed under control in China in May 2014. 75. Seizures of pseudoephedrine were reported by 22 countries In 2016, China dismantled 27 clandestine ephedrine and territories. Australia reported seizures of 1.1 tons, while the laboratories and warehouses where ephedrine and total amount of all pseudoephedrine raw material that was 2-bromopropiophenone were being illicitly manufactured or reported seized in other countries was less than 400 kg. By stored; the authorities also noted an expansion of such activities contrast, seized preparations containing pseudoephedrine north of the Yangtze River.15 __________________ __________________ 15 China, National Narcotics Control Commission, Annual China, National Narcotics Control Commission, Annual Report on Drug Control in China 2017 (Beijing, 2017), Report on Drug Control in China 2017 (Beijing, 2017), pp. 30 and 59. pp. 30 and 59. 13 PRECURSORS 77. The Philippines reported seizures of ephedrine every Figure VIII. Seizures of pseudoephedrine (raw material and single year during the period 2012–2016; however, amounts preparations) reported by Myanmar on form D and to the fluctuated between less than 1 kg (2013) and more than 500 kg Fortieth Meeting of Heads of National Drug Law (2014). In addition, authorities in the country regularly Enforcement Agencies, Asia and the Pacific, 2012–2016 dismantle illicit methamphetamine laboratories. In recent 7,000 years, those authorities have observed a move away from large- scale (industrial) manufacture to smaller-scale (“kitchen”) 6,000 laboratories and a trend of splitting the manufacturing process into different stages in different locations. Laboratories where 5,000 ephedrine-based methamphetamine is manufactured also continued to be dismantled in East and South-East Asia in 2017. In one illicit laboratory in Malaysia, more than 100 kg of 4,000 ephedrine were seized; the chemicals used for processing were believed to be from domestic sources. 3,000 Amount (kilograms) Amount 78. With 55 per cent of global seizures of pseudoephedrine 2,000 preparations reported for the period 2012–2016 taking place in the subregion, countries in East and South-East Asia also 1,000 accounted for the majority of seizures of such preparations, as a result of the high number of seizures in Myanmar and 0 Thailand. Those two countries accounted for 42 per cent and 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016a 45 per cent, respectively, of the amounts of pseudoephedrine preparations seized in the subregion during the period. Form D 79. The largest seizure of pseudoephedrine preparations ever Meeting of Heads of National Drug Law reported in Thailand was a seizure of 3.8 tons that was made in Enforcement Agencies, Asia and the Pacific 2016. It should be seen against the classification of such a Data provided to the Fortieth Meeting cover only January–June 2016. products as psychotropic substances in category II of the 81. Although Viet Nam only reported seizures of ephedrine Psychotropic Substances Act as of April 2012. Unfortunately, no and pseudoephedrine and their preparations in 2013 and 2014 information was shared on the sources of the preparations and (totalling about 50 kg each year), the country has regularly been the methods of diversion, limiting the value of the information identified as a point of embarkation for consignments of provided; this applies to the information submitted by most ephedrine and pseudoephedrine smuggled into Australia. On countries. form D for 2016, the authorities of Hong Kong, China, also 80.