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A big market for drug peddlers, says UN
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07 March 2008
New Delhi, India
India is the new target group for West African drug peddlers and international cocaine syndicates who have been moving consignments of cocaine to south Asia, mainly India - a shift in focus from prime European and US markets which still attract around 200-300 tonnes of stimulant annually.
In an annual report released on Wednesday, the UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said West African traffickers had targeted countries in south Asia, mainly India, for cocaine trafficking while cannabis and heroin abuse remained to be high in the region. "South American cocaine is smuggled into India in small quantities where it is exchanged for South-West Asian heroin bound for Europe or North America," the report said, adding that India had become a major transit country and destination for drug trafficking for many international syndicates.
The INCB report blamed the porous border with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan as one of the reasons behind the increase in cross-border smuggling of drugs. Besides heroin and cocaine, the easy availability of pharmaceutical preparations such as codeine-based syrups, benzodiazepines and buprenorphine in the illicit market had led to their increased smuggling to neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
Sprouting of indigenous organised criminal gangs smuggling pharmaceutical preparations to neighbouring nations is an indictment of the enforcement agencies here that have failed to check the illicit market despite several countries officially lodging complaints with the government.
In 2005, the Narcotics Control Bureau had seized over a crore vials of buprenorphine injections diverted to the illicit market. The huge seizure and an official protest from Pakistan, which had also seized one lakh vials of India-made buprenorphine in Islamabad, had forced the government to launch Operation Track to crack down on offenders. However, the INCB report indicates that the illicit trade continues.
