Washington, March 02: Seizures of heroin made in various parts of India in the recent past indicate that most of the drug transiting through the country is bound for Europe, a US report has said.
“Most heroin transiting India appeared bound for Europe. Seizures of Southwest Asian heroin made in New Delhi and Mumbai tend to reinforce this assessment,” the latest US report on International Narcotics Trade released by the State Department said.
The report, however, noted that the bulk of heroin seized in the past two years has been of domestic origin, was seized in South India, and was apparently destined for Sri Lanka.
According to the report trafficking groups operating in India fall into four categories.
Most seizures in Mumbai and New Delhi involve West African traffickers. Traffickers who maintain familial and tribal ties to Pakistan and Afghanistan are responsible for most of the smuggling of heroin from the two countries into India.
Ethnic Tamil traffickers, centred primarily in southern India, are alleged to be involved in trafficking between India and Sri Lanka.
Indigenous tribal groups in the northeastern states adjacent to Burma maintain ties to Burmese trafficking organisations and facilitate the entry into Burma of precursor chemicals and into India of refined “white sugar” heroin through the porous Indo-Burma border.
In addition, insurgent groups in these states have utilised drug trafficking as a means to finance their operations against the Indian Government, it said. Indian-produced methaqualone ‘Mandrax’ trafficking to Southern and Eastern Africa continues.
Although South Africa has increased methaqualone production, India is still believed to be among the world’s largest known clandestine methaqualone producers.
Seizures of methaqualone, which is trafficked in both pill and bulk forms, have varied widely, from 472 kilogrammes in 2005 and 4,521 kilogrammes in 2006, one kilogram in 2007 and as of September 2008, 2,361 kilogrammes has been seized.
Cannabis smuggled from Nepal is mainly consumed within India, but some makes its way to Western destinations.
India is also increasingly emerging as a manufacturer and supplier of licit opiate/psychotropic pharmaceuticals (LOPPS), both organic and synthetic, to the Middle East, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Some of the LOPPS are licitly manufactured and then diverted, often in bulk, it said, adding some are illicitly manufactured as well.
Though the US has a close and cooperative relationship with India on counter-narcotics issues, the report said that New Delhi is not co-operating with it in the case of extraditions.
“The United States and India are parties to extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties (MLAT), but implementation by the GOI of both treaties continues to suffer from delays based on lack of GOI initiative and lack of communication by GOI authorities regarding the status of implementation of USG requests,” it said.
“Implementation of the MLAT has also suffered due to the refusal of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Indian Central Authority to use electronic communication technology to communicate with the US Department of Justice, its US counterpart,” it said.
Implementation of the extradition treaty has likewise suffered because of a failure of the Ministry of External Affairs to communicate directly with US Department of Justice and to effectively supervise attorneys representing governments in the extradition proceedings in India, the report added.
-PTI