Manon Eileen – a Writer's Blog

This is the fourth and last installment series on the Global Drugs Trafficking. Before, we discussed the basics of drug trade (Discover the Trade, pt. 1), how organic drugs are grown (How to Grow Coca and Opium Poppies, pt. 2), and how the drugs are produced (How Heroin, Cocaine and Meth are Produced, pt. 3).

Today, we’ll discuss the distribution of the drugs. After production, the drugs need to be distributed around the world. As is usual for the posts I write on drug trafficking, my source is the UNODC World Drugs Report (2010).

Distribution closely linked to demand. Where the demand is, the drugs go.

Distribution of Cocaine

Cocaine demands are high worldwide. However, there has been a shift in where the drug is in demand. Before (1998), cocaine was particularly popular in the USA. Nearly three-quarters of cocaine produced was shipped to and consumed in the US. In the past few years, demand for cocaine has increased in Europe and the amount of drugs distributed to the US and Europe are almost equal.

On the figure on the right you can see the global cocaine flows and how they have changed between 1998 and 2008. What is particularly interesting is that cocaine, these days, is more often shipped from South America to the African continent, where it is then shipped to Europe. Additionally, the Caribbean route seems to have become less popular (perhaps because of the alternative African route).

What I miss in this figure, is that it lacks information on cocaine flows to Asia. In the World Drug Report, it is mentioned that cocaine is consumed in Asia, and it has become increasingly popular on the continent. However, unfortunately I can’t say anything about the flows to the continent.

Ways of Transportation

From the Andes Region to the US

Most of the cocaine enters the US through the Mexican border. Border cities Juárez (Mexico) and El Paso (TX, USA) are where most of the drug-smuggling magic happens. The US has put fences along the national border between the two cities and regulate all road customs, but the cartels have found their ways to still get the drugs across. They have dug tunnels, and they’re not the tunnels you’d imagine. Some of these tunnels are thousands of miles long, with electricity and little mine-like trains running through them. The US border patrol has found a few of these tunnels in recent years.

Juárez is actually one of the most violent cities of the world. Since Mexico started their drugs war to break the power of the cartels in 2006, over 15,000 people have died (“Life and Death in Juárez, the World’s Murder Capital“, The Guardian, 2009).

Other cocaine shipments enter the US by water, often through big ports in Florida (particularly Miami) and Texas.

From the Andes Region to Europe

We Dutch quite often hear about cocaine smugglers in the news. “An individual was caught on Schiphol airport (Amsterdam), smuggling 2 kilos of cocaine in his belly”, or someone was caught with twenty kilos in a suitcase, or they had it concealed in their clothes. Twenty kilo, or even two, is nothing. It’s even irrelevant, which is interesting because you rarely hear about the large amounts of cocaine seized in the European ports.

Most cocaine enters Europe through the big ports. The port of Rotterdam (The Netherlands) is an important one, but due to language barriers, the cocaine smugglers (who evidently mostly speak Portuguese and Spanish) head for the big ports of Spain and Portugal. The amounts that are caught in these ports are astonishing. Occasionally “small” hauls of 300 kilos are seized, and in August 2011, the UK seized their biggest shipment of cocaine ever. The shipment consisted of 1,2 tons of cocaine, worth an estimated £300 million (nearly US $500 million) and it was destined for Rotterdam harbor (“Seized Cocaine Shipment Is The Largest Ever Seized In Britain“, UK News Gateway, 2011).

Distribution of Heroin and Opium

As I portrayed in the first, more general post on global drug trafficking, heroin has become slightly less popular, worldwide. Because of this, it has also become cheaper and thus has become more popular on the African continent and Eastern Europe (no exact causal correlation here, but this is, in a very basic sense, what’s happened).

On the figure on the right you can see the heroin and opium flows from Asia. Approximately 80% of all heroin produced comes from Afghanistan, next biggest producer is Burma (Myanmar) and a few percent come from the countries surrounding them. A few tiny percent come from the Andes Region, which aren’t even displayed in this figure.

Afghanistan has three main routes through which the heroin is smuggled, but after it’s passed through these main routes (through Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia and Russia), the heroin and opium are spread all over the continent. They seem to have a multitude of ways to smuggle the drugs.

Most of the smuggling goes by land – often carried by camels and other pack animals, in caravans. From Iran, the drugs are often carried to other destination by air or sea, in cargo containers. The shipments to North America are most often smuggled by plane.

Interestingly, what’s mentioned in the World Drug Report but not clearly displayed on the figure is that most heroin coming from Pakistan goes to the UK and The Netherlands. Pakistan is also the biggest supplier of heroin to Africa.

A recent BBC report (“Nigerian officials find heroin in shipment from Iran“, BBC, 2010) mentions a seizure of 130 kilos of heroin in the seaport of Lagos, Nigeria. The entire shipment was worth nearly $10 million, and the drugs were hidden in engine parts. What’s interesting is that in the World Drugs Report, a figure displays the nationalities of people caught in Pakistan for heroin trafficking, 32% is Pakistani and 32% is Nigerian. 14% falls in the “Other” category, the remaining 22% is made up of a lot of other African nationalities. That’s very interesting!

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 What are your thoughts about the global flows of heroin and cocaine? Are there any bits of information here that surprised you or that you find particularly interesting?

This is the third post in a five-part series on global drug trafficking.

Discover the Trade – Global Drug Trafficking Pt. 1
How to Grow Coca and Opium Poppies – Global Drug Trafficking pt. 2

Today I will explain how heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine are manufactured. I won’t go into exact details because I don’t want to promote the production of any of these drugs, but should you be interested, the instructions are readily available online (which is interesting on its own).

Opium, Morphine and Heroin Manufacture

In the post on cultivation (part 2), I explained how the plant is grown. When the plant is ready for the production of opium – because that’s what the manufacture begins with – the petals of the flowers fall away to expose an egg-shaped seed pod. Inside is opium in its crudest form, an opaque, milky sap. This is extracted – the farmer makes vertical slits in the skin of the pod

an Afghan Cooking Room

with a special knife. When the sap oozes out, it turns darker and thicker. It turns into a brownish-black gum, also called latex.

The opium then enters the black market, where it is sold as bricks, cakes or balls, wrapped in plastic or leaves. However, most traffickers refine the opium into morphine close to the poppy fields because morphine is easier to smuggle than the pungent, jelly like opium.

The refineries are little more than rickety labs, equipped with oil drums. There, the opium is mixed with lime in boiling water. Organic waste sinks to the bottom and on the surface, a white band of morphine forms. This is drawn off and reheated with ammonia, after which it’s filtered and boiled again until reduced to a brown paste.

The paste is poured into molds and dried in the sun. It is now morphine base, which feels like modeling clay. The base is smoke-able in a pipe or ready for further processing into heroin.

C.R. Wright, an English researcher, was the first to unknowingly produce heroin in 1874. He simply boiled the morphine base and a common chemical over a stove for several hours.

The modern technique entails a complicated series of steps and requires a good laboratory, because a particular stage of the heroin production is notoriously risky. If the chemist were careless, certain gases could ignite and produce a violent explosion.

Cocaine and Crack Cocaine Production

Dried coca leaves are crushed, chopped and/or pounded and mixed with a solution of alcohol, kerosene or gasoline. This is to separate the cocaine from the leaves. The resulting liquid contains unpurified cocaine alkaloids and possibly waxy material from the leaves. To remove the wax, the liquid is heated and then cooled again, which solidifies it.

A Cocaine Factory

The alkaloids are isolated next. This is done with acid and some basic mixtures, and when isolated, the alkaloids are treated with kerosene. The kerosene is then removed. Gas crystals of crude cocaine are left at the bottom of the tank. These are typically dissolved in methyl alcohol, after which they are recrystallized and dissolved in sulfuric acid. The result is cocaine that is about 60% pure.

At this point, the cocaine is freebase cocaine, very similar to crack cocaine.

Next, the freebase cocaine is converted to salt, or cocaine hydrochloride, or regular cocaine. If the cocaine is not converted to salt, it would lose its potency for long. Also, if not converted, it’s not soluble in water, which means it couldn’t be injected or snorted.

When cocaine is converted to crack, they basically revert the previous process.

Methamphetamine Manufacture

A Meth Lab

As methamphetamine is not based on an organic ingredient, it’s manufactured in all parts of the worlds. The highest concentrations of manufacture have been found in East and SouthEast Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa.

Production of methamphetamine is relatively simple, but entails risk with flammable and corrosive chemicals, particularly the solvents used in extraction and purification. Consequently, meth-labs are often discovered by fires and explosions caused by the improper handling of volatile or flammable solvents.

Many of the ingredients are readily available in household products, or over-the-counter medicines for cold or allergies. The ingredient the manufacturers look for are ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. The original product has to be reduced to this ingredient. The maximum conversion rate for ephedrine and pseudoephedrine is 92%, although typically, illicit methamphetamine laboratories convert at a rate of 50% to 75%.

Methamphetamine labs can give off noxious fumes. If produced by amateurs, manufacturing methamphetamine can be extremely dangerous. If the red phosphorus overheats, because of a lack of ventilation, phosphine gas can be produced. This gas is highly toxic and, if present in large quantities, can explode when it comes in touch with a different

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To describe how methamphetamine is made would require me to explain all sorts of chemical processes. Frankly, I’m far from a chemist, so I wouldn’t even understand it myself. Basically, they follow a recipe, after which the methamphetamine crystal comes into existence. Often, the crystal is crushed into a powder, which is snorted, injected, eaten or in a different way consumed.

Had you ever read about how they are produced before? What did you find particularly interesting? (I’m personally amazed by the fact that cocaine is part gasoline/kerosene, actually. I had no idea). Are you as amazed as I am about the lengths that people go (they often endanger their own and their family’s health) to produce these products?

Worldwide, there are an estimated amount of nearly 400 million drug users. Today, I list what their favorite (illegal) drugs are.

These data are taken from the World Drugs Report (2010) by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

5. Cocaine

It’s estimated that there are, globally, between 15,07 million and 19,38 million people who used cocaine over the year 2009. Cocaine is particularly popular in Northern America, where most of the users are located (6,17 million users). It’s also popular in West/Central-Europe. Interestingly, although close to the source of cocaine cultivation and manufacture, cocaine is relatively unpopular in Central America and the Caribbean, where the estimate lies between 110 and 320 thousand users.

4. Ecstasy (aka MDMA, XTC, X, etc)

MDMA stands for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, which actually means it falls into the amphetamines group. However, the UNODC distinguishes between ecstasy and the non-specified amphetamines group because often, more specific information about ecstasy-users is available.

Worldwide, there are between 10,45 and 25,82 million ecstasy users. MDMA is generally known as a party drug – it induces a sense of euphoria, increases the sense of intimacy with others and decreases anxiety. The drug is popular around the world, in the Americas (est. 3,04-3,28 million users), Europe (3,85-4,08 million) and Asia (2,37-15,62 million – a rougher estimate since data could only be obtained from limited parts of Asia), whereas it’s not particularly popular in Africa (0,35-1,93 million users).

3. Opiates (including Heroin)

The term ‘opiate’ describes all drugs produced from the opium poppy plant. The opiates group includes for instance, heroin, codeine and morphine.

Opiates are most popular in Asia. This might not be surprising as Asian countries are where most opiates are produced  (particularly Afghanistan, but also Burma, Pakistan, Vietnam and Laos). Drugs produced from opium poppies are often used as sedatives and pain-killers (due to often unavailable medical care), with severe addiction as a consequence. The estimate of opiate users in Asia lies between 6,46 and 12,54 million users, the worldwide estimate is between 12,84 and 21,88 million users, so the majority of users is definitely located in Asia.

Use of opiates is in Europe and the Americas, compared to the numbers in Asia, relatively low (and use has declined over the past years). In Europe, between 3,29 and 3,82 million people use opiates. In the Americas, that estimate is between 2,29 and 2,44. A rise in popularity of opiates has been seen in Africa (due to the decrease in price of opiates): there are an estimated 0,68 to 2,67 users.

2. Amphetamine-type Stimulants (ATS)

Amphetamines are chemical drugs – also known as designer drugs. They don’t have organical components and are mostly produced in ‘drug labs’. The manufacture of these drugs often include dangerous chemical processes. The UNODC’s amphetamines group includes amphetamine, methamphetamine and methcathinone and related substances.

The popularity of ATS has increased incredibly over the past few years. Worldwide, there are 13,71 and 52,90 million users. The drugs are particularly popular in Asia, where the estimate lies between 4,43 and 37,99 million users. It’s also popular in the Americas, particularly in North America – the estimate lies between 4,76 and 5,89 million users. In Africa, the estimated amount of users is between 1,55 and 5,20 million.

1. Cannabis (a.k.a. marijuana, weed)

Cannabis is by far the most used drug in the entire world. The global estimate lies between 129 and 191 million users, which is an incredible lot more than the previous drugs. This has probably to do with the fact that cannabis is a soft drug and therefore more readily available (for instance, cannabis is sold legally here in The Netherlands, although recent reports pointed out that the relative amount of cannabis used in the US lies many times higher).

The amount of users spread over the continents is high and somewhat equal everywhere – in Africa, the estimated amount of users is 27,68-52,79 million. In the Americas, that amount lies between 38,21 and 40,03 million (with it being particularly popular in North and South America). In Asia, the estimate is between 31,51 and 64,58 users and in Europe there are an estimated 29 million users.

Main Problem Drugs as Reflected in Treatment Demand, by Region, late 1990s – 2008 as reported by UNOCD

If you’re interested in the World Drug Report, you can find a short summary of the originally 307 pages long report here.

Were these numbers as you’d expected? What surprised you most about these numbers, if at all?

P.S. I’d like to mention that of course, cafeine, alcohol and nicotine are the most used drugs worldwide, however, considering that these drugs are legal nearly worldwide, I left these out of the equation.

This post is part of a blog series about Global Drug Trafficking. Find part one, “Discover the Trade” here.

This week, we will discuss the cultivation of the coca plant (cocaine) and the opium poppy (heroin). As designer drugs such as methamphetamine and ecstacy are not cultivated (only organic drugs are), we will not discuss them until the next Global Drug Trafficking post, which will be on the manufacture.

The source for all statistical information in these posts is the UNODC – the United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime, and in particular the World Drugs Report 2010.

Cultivation of the Coca Plant for Cocaine

Coca (Erothroxylum Coca) is a plant native to western South America. It has always played a big role in Andean culture, where it is used to treat height sickness. People either chew on the leaves of the bush or use them for tea. The bush is mainly cultivated in Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and northwestern Argentina. The bush is cultivated often on the lower altitude slopes of the Andes, or on the highlands, depending on the species grown.

Seeds of the coca plant are sown between December and January in shadowy plots. When the plants are between 40 to 60 cm (1.5 to 2 feet) in height, they are moved to final planting holes, or, if the ground is level, in furrows.

The plants grow best in hot, humid locations, such as the clearings of forests. However, the best leaves are cultivated in drier areas, on hillsides. Once the bush is one and a half years of age, people start to collect the leaves, but only the fresh growth is harvested (the leaves are ready when they break on being bent). The first and must abundant harvest is in March, after the rainy season. The second harvest is at the end of June and the third in October or November. The bush can produce new leaves for over forty years.

The green leaves are spread in thin layers on coarse, woolen clots. They are dried in the sun and afterwards packed in sacks, which are kept dry to preserve the quality of the leaves.

In 2009, the global area under coca cultivation is approximately 158,800 hectares (ha). This is a decrease of 5% since 2008, a change mainly due to a significant decrease in Colombia (due to eradication) whereas the cultivation Peru and Bolivia has increased. Since 2000, the area under cultivation of coca has declined by 28%. Colombia represents about 43% of total coca cultivation, with Peru contribution 38% and Bolivia 19%.

Cultivation of the Opium Poppy for Opiates (mainly Heroin)

The illegal cultivation of the opium poppy (Papaver Somniferum) mainly takes place in Southwest Asia (Iran, Pakistan and especially Afghanistan) and in the highlands of Mainland Southeast Asia (Burma, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand). This area is popularly known as the “Golden Triangle”. Notably, opium poppies are also cultivated in some South American countries.

The opium poppy thrives in warm climates with low humidity. It needs only a small amount of water before and during the early stages of growth. The plant can be grown in a variety of soils, but it grows best in sandy loam soil, which is easily cultivated. Rainy, cloudy weather during growth will reduce the quantity and quality of the narcotic content.

The opium is harvested from each opium pod by making vertical incisions with specially designed homemade knives. The pod remains on the stem of the plant and after the harvest is collected, the pods dry. Once dry, the largest and most productive pods are cut from the stem. The seeds are then removed and dried in the sun after which they are stored for the next year’s planting.

An average farming family can cultivate and harvest about one acre of poppy plants per year. Most of the more fertile fields van support cultivation for ten years or more without fertilization or insecticides before the soil is depleted.

The global area used for opium poppy cultivation declined by 15% to 181,400 ha in 2009 (or by 27% since 2007). Afghanistan, most notably, produces 89% of the world’s total opium. Other large contributors are Myanmar, Latin America (particularly Mexico and Colombia), although the amounts produced are tiny compared to the amounts produced by Afghanistan. It is predicted that the downward trend of opium cultivation will continue in the next years.

Cultivating Opium Poppies as a Hobby

Worldwide, opium poppies are kept in gardens and in pots on balconies. They have gorgeous flowers, and are not harmful in such small quantities. However, the USA does not discriminate between the poppy and the opium itself. Therefore, if you grow poppies, you’re liable to be charged with a felony for possession of Level II narcotics – whether you have one or one hundred poppies in your garden. Although likely you will be apprehended, it has happened – this article reports an author’s apprehension for writing a book on the cultivation of poppies in gardens and was kept in jail for three days along with his wife, and could have been jailed for ten years.

Personally, I find this extreme nonsense. A professor (who studied opium poppies for over 25 years) in the aforementioned article says the following, with which I full-heartedly agree:

“They can make somebody high, but I don’t see it as a threat to public health. To grow enough to become an addict would take an acre’s-worth of plants and I don’t think most drug addicts are dedicated enough to become farmers.”

What do you think?

This is the first post in a new five-part series on Global Drug Trafficking. The following posts will be (consecutively) Production, Manufacture, Distribution and Sale.

Drug trafficking is a global illicit trade. UNOCD (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) continuously monitors the global drug market to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics within the trade. These posts will be supported mainly with information retrieved from the UNODC website.

First I will explain some general facts in this post, so you might better understand the global drug trade.

What are drugs?

Drugs are substances that, when absorbed into the body, alter normal bodily function. As you can see, that is an extremely wide variety of substances. Caffeine, cigarettes, alcohol, and of course medicinal substances (such as for instance Prozac or Valium, or even Ibuprofen) are all drugs. These are mostly drugs that people are allowed, by law, to use.

A short history of drugs in the illicit trade

There was a time when cocaine and heroine were over-the-counter products, but in 1912, first steps toward the prohibition of drug trade were made. The International Opium Convention, a treaty signed by the countries with major marine power brought an end to the trade of opium. In the past you have probably been told that the East India Company mostly traded in spices and tea, but they were actually highly involved in the global drug trade.

In 1931, the Paris Convention was signed to prohibit the production and distribution of drugs in the more general sense. In 1961, The international treaty Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was signed to include the vast variety of synthetic drugs that had been invented in the 30 years that had passed. The production and distribution of specific (narcotic) drugs except those under license for medical treatment or research was prohibited.

More treaties have been signed since 1961, but none were as ground-breaking as these three.

In the global drug trade, drugs banned by these conventions are sold. There are several categories.

• Depressants
• Opiates: i.e. morphine, heroin, opium, codeine, methadone (not illegal but also depressant are i.e. alcohol, antihistamines and antipsychotics)
• Stimulants
• i.e. cocaine, MDMA (a.k.a. ecstasy or XTC), amphetamines (not illegal but also stimulant are i.e. nicotine, caffeine and methylphenidate a.k.a. Ritalin)
• Hallucinogens
• i.e. LSD, mescalin, cannabis (a.k.a. marijuana)

Use of illicit drugs

Worldwide, there are millions of drug (ab)users. Click the following graphs to view them in larger size. (Source: 2010 UNODC World Drug Report).

What I find interesting about this graph is to see how much the preferences of drug users have changed. Opiate and cocaine-type use has declined significantly, whereas amphetamines and other designer (synthetic) drugs have become more popular.

Interestingly, the only increase in use in opiates is found in Africa. This can mainly be explained by the decrease in price of the drug.

(By looking at this graph, keep in mind that these numbers are relative to the continent’s/country’s number of inhabitants. For instance: the low estimate for cannabis users in Europe and Africa are roughly similar, keep in mind that Africa has a little over 1 billion inhabitants, whereas Europe “only” has 731 million. The percentage of users in each continent is much different.)

How come the illegal drug trade still exists?

There are numerous organizations worldwide that fight against the illicit drug trade. The War on Drugs is a U.S. campaign to end the drug trade – with the help of the military. Many people have been hurt in this “war” (financially, physically and mentally), and many people will continue to be hurt.

Despite the efforts to bring an end to drug use and the market, it still is booming. Very shortly put, this has everything to do with corruption. The levels of corruption surrounding the drug trade are astounding. I have heard of techniques to get drugs across borders that made my jaw drop; there are those who hide the drugs within their bodies, have ways of hiding the drugs within fabrics, etcetera. The lengths people go to hide, ship and sell drugs are extreme.

If you worked at an airport for a meager salary of $1000 a month, with a pile of debts as high as the Empire State Building, would you not accept $5000 to leave open a door at a certain time, thereby indirectly enabling the business? It’s easy money, and it’s extremely hard for the government agencies to track you down.

And you have the people in positions of power that are involved in the illegal drug trade, too. For instance, a few years ago, a harbor captain in a Mexican harbor was arrested and sentenced for enabling the drug trade. He was responsible for the authorization of ships as they came in and went out of the harbor. These people often make millions of dollars simply by cooperating and enabling the business.

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What are your ideas about the global drug market?

While the War on Drugs could open an entirely different can of worms, what are your thoughts on it?

What would you do if you were in the position of the airport employee?

Please share your thoughts and ideas!