17/11/99:BURMESE HEROIN SEIZURES IN

[uneoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

POSTED WED 17 NOV 99: 6:00AM(REPOSTED)

BURMESE HEROIN SEIZURES IN AUSTRALIA
WITH REPORTS FROM AAP(8/11/99), AFP(15/11/99) AND FEER(9/9/99).
***************************************************************
ADDED NOTE: Australian Police in last few months have made very large
amount of heroin seizures. In October 1998,  400 kg of heroin valued AU$
400 million were seized at Australian eastern coast. And just last week
200 kg of heroin worth A$200 million being seized from a shipping
container (see AAP report below).

Last years' seizure of 400 kg was traced back to the heroin produced in
Burmese Golden triangle. The ship that brought heroin to Australia had
reportedly picked-up its heroin consignment at a Burmese port in the Bay
of Bangal.

According to following reports, recent batch of heroin  comes through
Indonesia. Australian police are reported to be testing the chemical
trace to determine the origin of heroin. However, from what I saw from
TV footage, the plastic packets looks Chinese/Eastern Design and the
blocks were marked "999": these heroin most likely to have come from
Golden Triangle of Eastern Burma.

Though being efficient, the efforts by international law enforcement
agencies are rather futile in stemming the tide of heroin influx from
Burma. This is because Burmese heroin are not only produced in a massive
scale but also being delivered with "military efficiency" to its
customers. Only way to tackle this problem is at its source of
production: the opium poppy fields in Shan State.

To reduce opium cultivation, there reported to be a small pilot-project
for crop substitution by UNDCP in Shan State. Unfortunately, with
current political climate, the UNDCP's crop substitution program is not
appropriate one-- at least for the short term. An alternative scheme
(aerial spraying) to tackle this heroin problem has already been
suggested in March of this year. Still, I haven't see any sign of
movement on that front. Our friends, please help wake the Clinton
Administration up on this matter.
 
     -- Regards, U Ne Oo.    

---------------------------------------------------------------
TWO SINGAPOREAN ARRESTED OVER AUSTRALIA'S SECOND LARGEST HEROIN HAUL
By John Kidman, Crime Reporter

SYDNEY, Nov 8 AAP-- Two Singaporean men are behind bars following the
second largest heroin seizure in Australian history, with almost 220kg
of the banned narcotic found secreted in a false-bottomed shipping
container.

The hauL--with an estimated street value of more than $200 million --was
discovered by Sydney customs officials last month.

However, the pair were not arrested until yesterday when police claim
one of the accused attempted to retrieve the drugs at a western Sydney
warehouse.

The man, a 51-year-old "fruit and vegetable importer" has been charged
with attempting to posses a prohibited import.

Along with his 47-year-old co-accused, he also faces one count of being
knowingly concerned with the importation of the same.

It is believed at least one of the men was identified as a person of
interest by joint task force investigators as far back as December 1998. 

At the time his name was linked to the discovery of another
false-bottomed container found abandoned in a street at Marrickville, in
Sydney's inner-west.

Suspicions were aroused that the container had, at some stage, been used
to import drugs, detectives said today.

A high level investigation began involving Australian Customs,
Australian Federal Police (AFP), New South Wales Police, the National
Crime Authority (NCA) and the NSW Crime Commission.

According to facts tendered in Central Local Court today customs
officers intercepted a second suspicious contained linked to the
suspect, at Port Botany, on October 21 this year.

While its indonesian-consiged cargo had been listed as consisting of 29
pallets of wooden flooring materials, only 13 such pallets were found.

"Further examination by customs officers revealed a false floor beneath
which was a total of 622 blocks, each weighing 350g, totaling
approximately 219.17 kg of heroin," police said.

It is alleged both accused men arrived in Australia from Singapore on
October 6.

According to the AFP facts sheet, the pair claimed they were travelling
alone.

However, they were allegedly found to have stayed together in a room at
Chinatown's Furama Hotel before moving to an inner-city apartment.

Police allege one of the men then arranged for  the container to be
trucked to a rented warehouse at west-suburban Hoxton Park.

He was also witnessed over the past week purchasing a number of items to
be used in the removal of the container's false floor, including three
jemmy bars and a socket set.

It is alleged that man took deliver of a forklift at the warehouse on
Friday, before being arrested in the act of dismantling the fake floor
yesterday.

His co-accused was apprehended in a simultaneous raid on the Chinatown
hotel.

Federal police today alleged the men were "fairly high-up" players
within a major syndicate.

Justice and Customs Minister Amanda Vanstone said the impact of the
seizure may not be immediate but would eventually be felt.

"This is a massive amount of heroin which has been stopped from reaching
the streets of this country," she told journalists.

It equates to more than four million hits of the drug which could have
circulated in the community, putting thousands of lives at risk."

AFP Commissioner Mick Palmer will brief Interpol delegates on the haul
at a meeting of the organisation's general assembly in Seoul today.

Meanwhile, both accused men have been remanded in custody to reappear in
Central Local Court on December 20. AAP jk/sb/rds
********
AFP (15/11/99)
50 KG OF HEROIN COMING INTO INDONESIA EVERY MONTH

BODY: 
AFP, Jakarta, 15 November 1999.   At least 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of
heroin pours into Indonesia every month, most of it by courier from the
Golden Triangle countries of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, a report said
Monday.

The Indonesian Observer quoted Colonel Wilhelmus Laturete, the head of
the National Police drugs and narcotics division as saying the figures
were obtained from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). 

The DEA information indicated that at least one member of an
international drug syndicate entered Indonesia daily carrying around 1.5
kilograms of heroin, and in some cases three people daily carrying a
total of 4.5 kilograms of the narcotic. 

That information tallied with drug seizures made at Jakarta's
Sukarno-Hatta international airport, Laturete said. 

"When we interrogate the suspects they always say that it is not the
first time they have entered through SH airport. Many even inform us
that they have acted as couriers at least three or four times with
payments of up to 6,000 dollars for each trip," he said. 

He added that once in the country, the drugs were carried by local
couriers to different cities and bar and nightclub distribution points,
and that his force needed more sophisticated detecting equipmnent and
personnel. 

The Observer quoted customs and police sources as saying that around 15
kilograms of heroin was seized in Indonesia monthly. 

It also quoted national police chief Rusmanhadi (Eds: one name) as
saying stern action had been taken against police in East Java found to
be involved in drug sales and distribution. 

In addition to the estimated 480,000 heroin users in the country (based
on a figure of one gram per user per month), ecstacy pills,
amphetamines, marijuana and cocaine were also entering the country in
large quantities, the Observer said. 

Those drugs were sent by "certain individuals" through air cargo
shipments and by mail from Nigeria, Thailand and Singapore and packed in
a way that fooled police dogs, the Observer said. 

Internet ProLink PC User
*******
FEER(9/9/99) 
AUSTRALIA COUNTS COST
By Bertil Lintner in Sydney

Australia has emerged as a major destination for Burmese narcotics.
Australian police say a plentiful supply of heroin has led to a dramatic
rise in overdose deaths among the nation's estimated 45,000 addicts.
They say as many as 1,000 people could die this year from heroin
overdoses--40 % more than in 1998. Now amphetamines from Burma are also
reaching Australia.

The volume of the drug traffic was made apparent last October (1998),
when Australian authorities seized 400 kilograms of pure heroin off the
nothern coast of New South Wales. The record haul, almost three times
the amount of heroin seized in all of Australia in 1997, had an
estimated street value of A$400 million ($255 million). Australian
Federal Police sources say the drugs originated in the Burmese area of
the Golden Triangle.

Police say rising production of heroin in northern Burma has led to a
decline in wholesale and street prices in Australia. The lower prices,
in turn have led many dealers to stop diluting their heroin, creating a
much purer and deadlier product. A kilogram of pure heroin now costs
less than A$100,000 in Australia, down from A$200,000 just five years
ago. On the streets of Cabramatta, a Sydney suburb that is now the hub
of the drug trade on Australia's east coast, a 20-milligram capsule of
heroin costs between A$15 and A$20, down from A$30 last year.

Exactly how much heroin is available in Australia isn't known. But the
limited impact on heroin prices after the October seizure unnerved
narcotics experts. "We expected a shortage in the streets of Cabramatta,
and therefore an increase in the price of heroin," says Lisa Maher, a
criminologist at the University of New South Wales and an expert on the
drug trade. " but it had no impact at all. Prices remained the same,
There's just so much of it around."

Recently, Australian police made their first seizure of amphetamines
from
Burma. Details of the consignment remain sketchy, but a senior
Australian
Federal Police officer says it consisted of the small, round yaa baa
pills that are flooding into northern Thailand from Burma.

Given the vast sums of money that drug trade generates and a profusion
of smuggling routes, Australian narcotics officials say they fear Thai
government efforts to stem the flow of drugs out of Burma may have
little effect.


-- 
HTTP://www.physics.adelaide.edu.au/~uneoo
EMAILS: drunoo@xxxxxxxxxxxx, uneoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
POSTMAIL: Dr U Ne Oo, 18 Shannon Place, Adelaide SA 5000, AUSTRALIA
[http://freeburma.org/[http://www.angelfire.com/al/homepageas/index.htm]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =