Newsgroups: alt.drugs
From: [catalyst remailer] at [netcom.com]
Subject: Drug syndicates taking over world, says CIA.
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 23:10:28 -0700

        WASHINGTON (AP) -- Organized criminals from Russia, China and
Africa are forging ties with old European and Latin American crime
groups to threaten national economies and world security, the CIA
director told Congress Wednesday.
        R. James Woolsey said a Russian ``criminal politburo'' could
emerge as a powerful adversary with the network and resources to
deal in nuclear warheads, while violent drug traffickers and other
criminal groups are spreading and coordinating activities
throughout the world.
        Woolsey was the first witness in a two-day series of Senate
Foreign Relations subcommittee hearings on what panel chairman Sen.
John Kerry, D-Mass., said is an ``invisible enemy'' with vast
armies and wealth.
        ``Its agents have infiltrated tens of thousands of communities
on every continent, selling narcotics and deadly weapons of war,
gathering intelligence, building networks of influence and power,''
Kerry said.
        Assistant Attorney General Jo Ann Harris, also testifying at the
hearing, had harsh words for Colombian prosecutor general Gustavo
de Greiff, who has called for decriminalization of drug offenses.
        His policies, disavowed by Colombian President Cesar Gaviria,
``will result in only minimum sentences upon some of the world's
major narcotics traffickers, permitting their organizations to
remain intact and their enormous fortunes untouched,'' Harris said.
        She also said that Panama, despite the U.S. conviction of former
leader Manuel Noriega, ``remains a jurisdiction of choice for the
deposit, transfer and shipment of illegally derived monies.''
        Robert Gelbard, assistant secretary of state for narcotics
matters, said organized crime is ``more serious than we had
assumed. ... We see alarming trends.''
        Woolsey said the CIA in the post-Cold War era is giving
increased attention to the ties among international criminal
groups.
        Russian crime syndicates have forged ties with both Italian and
Colombian criminal operations, with the Russians providing security
for drug trafficking networks, he said.
        Nigerian criminal enterprises also play a major role in drug
trafficking, with 35-40 percent of all heroin entering the United
States carried in by Nigerians, Woolsey said. Nigerian groups also
are involved in carrying South American cocaine to Europe, he said.
        Chinese crime groups, called triads, span international
boundaries, too, and operate ``a host of criminal enterprises''
wherever there are sizeable ethnic Chinese communities.
        Speaking of all international crime groups, Woolsey said, ``We
need to understand the complex interplay between their illegal
activities, their efforts to forge international criminal links,
their money laundering schemes, and their impact on local, and even
national and regional stability.''
        North America remains the dominant market for South American
cocaine, he said, but Colombian traffickers are expanding into
Europe, with 11 metric tons of seized in Europe already this year,
compared to 16 metric tons for all of last year.
        Burma remains the leading exporter of opium, accounting for 70
percent of the world market, he said, and half of the refined
heroin in the United States comes from Southeast Asia.
        Much of Woolsey's testimony focused on the growing threat of
organized criminals in Russia. He said they often are tied to
corrupt government officials.
        He said there are 5,700 organized crime groups in Russia, with
about 200 large, sophisticated organizations. Their payoffs have
caused widespread corruption among government, police and military
officials and up to 80 percent of privatized enterprises have been
victims of extortion, he said.
        Russian criminal groups deal in narcotics, antiques, icons, raw
materials, stolen vehicles, illegal immigrants, weapons and some
nuclear materials. Thdanger is growing, and there have been
reports of thefts of low grade nuclear materials.