EXCERPTS: US DEA TESTIMONY ON HEROI

[Rangoonp@xxxxxxx]

Subject: EXCERPTS: US DEA TESTIMONY ON HEROIN

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/cngrtest/ct980624.htm

DEA Congressional Testimony

Statement by:
Donnie Marshall
Drug Enforcement Administration
United States Department of Justice 

Before the:House International Relations
Regarding:Heroin
Date:June 24, 1998 


Heroin is an insidious drug that quickly addicts even those who have
used it only a few times. We frequently see statistics that categorize
some drug abusers as "casual users." There are no long-term casual
heroin users; the onset of addiction is rapid, particularly when
injection is the method of administration. In the 1960s and early 1970s,
we saw heroin use surge as Italian organized crime syndicates in New
York imported heroin through the "French Connection." This heroin was
manufactured in France from Turkish-produced morphine base and then
shipped to the U.S., where it ravaged our inner cities and took the
lives of heroin-addicted musicians like John Coltrane, Billie Holliday,
Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. 

Over the past several decades, the appeal of heroin was largely held in
check. Two factors stigmatized heroin and limited its popularity. First,
due to the low purity of heroin available at the retail level, the only
effective method of administration was through injection, a method that
most drug users found unpalatable. Secondly, as an increased awareness
of the AIDS virus developed in the 1980s, many drug users chose to abuse
cocaine, crack and, most recently, methamphetamine rather than risk
contracting the virus through shared heroin needles. 


Heroin was also pushed from the spotlight of public concern by the
emergence of cocaine in the late 1970s and crack cocaine in the
mid-1980s. However, while the media focused on other drugs during these
decades, the number of heroin addicts in the United States continued to
grow. Current estimates from the Office of National Drug Control Policy
(ONDCP) place the hardcore heroin user population in the 600,000 -
800,000 range. The total heroin user population (including those who use
heroin for "recreational" purposes) is now estimated at 2 million. Last
year alone, there were 141,000 new heroin users, most of whom were under
the age of twenty-six. 

Why heroin and why now? In truth, our heroin problem never went away.
Today, the rapid increase in heroin's popularity is being generated, in
part, by the purity of the supply. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the
average purity of heroin at the retail level averaged between 2% and 7%.
According to the Domestic Monitor Program, the average purity for retail
heroin in 1997 was 38.4%, over 5 times higher than it was just a decade
ago. In fact, it is not unusual to find 80% pure heroin in some East
Coast cities. At this purity level, heroin can be administered
effectively through several methods, including smoking- called "Chasing
the Dragon"- and snorting heroin like cocaine. These methods of
ingestion are preferred by first time and casual users who find
injecting heroin unglamourous and who want to avoid sharing dirty
needles. However, as drug users gain tolerance, addicted snorters and
smokers are forced to turn to injection which quickly leads to hard core
addiction. 

 ..... . . . . . 
By the mid-1980s, the heroin market in the United States was shared by
drug traffickers from several different nations. Mexico dominated the
U.S. market on the West Coast. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, and
Lebanon (Southwest Asia/ Middle East) and Burma, Laos, and Thailand (the
Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia) shared the rest of the U.S. market.
Southwest Asian heroin was marketed through ethnic outlets in the
northeastern and midwestern United States. Southeast Asian heroin,
meanwhile, was marketed primarily by ethnic Chinese (e.g. KHUN SA)who
replaced the French Connection as the major source of supply of heroin
for organized crime families and other trafficking organizations on the
East Coast. 

SOUTHEAST ASIA: HEROIN FROM THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE 

According to the DEA's Heroin Seizure Program, Southeast Asian heroin,
once the predominant type of heroin available in the U.S., accounted for
only 8% of the heroin seized in the United States in 1996. Illicit opium
production and, by extension, heroin conversion activity, continued at
record levels through 1997. Burma continues to be the world's largest
producer of illicit opium and heroin while Laos has maintained its
position as the third largest opium producer in the world. 

Thailand is the center of operations for heroin traffickers and has
traditionally served as a transit area for heroin shipments en route
from Burma to international markets. However, an increasing quantity of
heroin has been shipped along alternate routes in recent years.
Traffickers have turned primarily to China, where the volume of heroin
transshipped across the nation is now staggering; the Chinese claim to
have seized nearly 20 metric tons of heroin from 1991-1996. 

Heroin from Southeast Asia reaches the U.S. through Chinese heroin
brokers who provide suppliers with connections to ethnic Chinese
organizations in the United States. Nigerian and West African groups
serve as an additional source of heroin; they smuggle heroin from the
Golden Triangle aboard commercial airlines bound for the United States.
The Nigerian couriers then unload their product, principally in the
Chicago area, through their own contacts with U.S.-based criminal
groups. Chicago is the only major U.S. city where Southeast Asian heroin
is predominant. 

Operation TIGER TRAP, a joint DEA Bangkok-Royal Thai Police
investigation launched in 1994, severely disrupted the Shan United
Army's heroin trafficking operations. By 1996, the infamous heroin
warlord Khun Sa and many of his troops had surrendered to Burmese
authorities. Burma Army troops also occupied the headquarters of the
Shan United Army. In addition, TIGER TRAP led to the arrest of more than
fifteen individuals for heroin trafficking. As a consequence of these
developments, heroin production in Shan-controlled areas has been
significantly reduced. 

In 1996, Operation GLOBAL SEA led to the arrest of 34 individuals and
the seizure of 56 kilograms of Southeast Asian heroin and $200,000. With
these arrests, traffickers of Southeast Asian heroin adopted alternative
means of transporting heroin from the Golden Triangle to the United
States, most notably utilizing express mail services to send packages of
heroin to the United States. 

Taiwan also serves as a transshipment point for Southeast Asian heroin
bound for the United States. The number of multihundred kilogram
seizures in recent years attests to the volume of heroin now being
trafficked through Taiwan's already busy ports. In 1991, the current
U.S. heroin seizure record was set in California when plastic bags
shipped from Thailand via Taiwan were found to contain 486 kilograms of
heroin. Taiwanese law enforcement officials have also secured seizures
of a similar volume; in 1993, Taiwanese law enforcement seized 336
kilograms of heroin in the cabin of a fishing boat. 

SOUTHWEST ASIAN HEROIN: NOW MORE OF THE U.S. MARKET SHARE 

Southwest Asian heroin accounted for nearly 20% of the total net weight
of heroin seized in the United States in 1996, nearly double the
percentage seized just four years earlier. Greater availability and
Southwest Asian heroin's increased purity means cheap, potent heroin
will be readily available in our communities, threatening the lives of
young, inexperienced teenagers engaged in "casual use" and
"experimentation." 

Law enforcement efforts to crack down on Southwest Asian heroin
traffickers have been hindered by the decentralization of Southwest
Asian heroin importation and distribution operations. Many separate,
tightly-knit organized criminal groups from Southwest Asia and the
Middle East are actively involved in transporting multikilogram
quantities of heroin to the United States. Penetrating the operations of
these groups is difficult, as they are based on ethnic, familial, and
tribal ties. 

According to U.S. Government estimates, Afghanistan continues to be the
world's second-largest producer of opium poppy. It is also the primary
supplier of opiate products for heroin conversion operations in Turkey.
Multiton quantities of morphine base and heroin also flow from
Afghanistan into Iran, the Central Asian republics, and India. However,
most of the opium produced in Afghanistan is transported to markets and
conversion laboratories located within the country and in Pakistan.
Opiates that transit Pakistan are principally destined for Western
European and, to a lesser extent, North American markets; DEA estimates
that 18% of the heroin produced in Pakistan is transported to the United
States. 

Vancouver serves as the key operational headquarters for the criminal
organizations that transport Southwest Asian heroin to the United
States. In order to facilitate their heroin distribution operations,
Southwest Asian traffickers have established close relationships with
North American gangs of Asian descent. In 1997, DEA- in conjunction with
the FBI, the Secret Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police- arrested 17 suspects in British
Columbia, Alberta, California, Washington, and Massachusetts on drug
charges. Subsequent investigations revealed that an ethnic Chinese
organized crime network in Asia had transported Southwest Asian heroin
via a commercial air carrier in Vancouver to Boston. The Vancouver-based
cell also supplied Vietnamese gangs in Los Angeles with heroin.