global illicit drug trends 2003 - United Nations Office on Drugs and ...

Global Illicit Drug Trends <strong>2003</strong>
Chapter 1. Trends: Trafficking – Opium / Heroin
Heroin seizures in 2000 and 2001
10,000
9,672
9,492
10,000
8,000
1,825
8,000
kilogram
6,000
4,000
2,000
5,896
4,198
-44%
2,347
6,326 6,189
6,931
-29% -35% -27%
4,464
4,001
4,262
+50%
6,393
6,000
4,000
2,000
-
EU & EFTA
countries
Balkan route
countries
Source: UNODC, Annual Reports Questionnaire Data / DELTA.
Turkey Iran Pakistan Silk-route
countries
(C.I.S)
2000 2001
-
The declines of heroin seizures in South-West
Asia were largely related to the sharply reduced
opium production in southern and eastern
Afghanistan in 2001. The concentration of opium
production in 2001 in northern Afghanistan meant
that the northern route gained in importance. Thus
heroin seizures in Central Asia rose by more than
55% in 2001.
If heroin seizures of the countries around
Afghanistan are aggregated according to the two
main trafficking routes to Europe, data clearly
show significant declines of heroin seizures along
the ‘traditional’ trafficking route (-32% in 2001),
including Pakistan b , Iran, Turkey and the (East-
European) countries along the Balkan route. In
contrast, trafficking along the Northern route (or
Silk route) c , clearly increased (+50%), mainly due
to significantly higher seizures reported from
Tajikistan (+125%) and the Russian Federation
(+31%).
The growing importance of the Northern route (silk
road) for heroin leaving Afghanistan is a
phenomenon that has been reflected in seizure
b
The Pakistan authorities reported in 2001, for the first time in
years, both heroin and morphine seizures to UNODC. The
decline of reported heroin seizures between 2000 and 2001
amounted to 27%. However, it cannot be excluded that part of
the heroin seizures reported in 2000 (and in previous years)
also included morphine seizures. Individual seizure cases, as
reported by Interpol, point in this direction. Thus the actual
decline of heroin seizures in 2001 may have been less. If
heroin and morphine seizures are combined, the decline would
have amounted to 8%.
c
For the purposes of this analysis the Central Asian countries
and the other countries forming part of the Commonwealth of
Independent States (C.I.S.) were aggregated.
statistics since the mid 1990s. Between 1998 and
2001 heroin seizures rose five-fold in Central Asia,
as trafficking and the response to this increased,
in particular by the Tajik authorities. In both 2001
and 2002 about 85% of all heroin seizures
reported from Central Asia were made by the
authorities in Tajikistan.
Heroin and morphine seizure data for 2002,
received for the countries neighbouring
Afghanistan, suggest that the overall levels and
distribution of the seizures remained largely
unchanged, suggesting that trafficking routes –
despite important political changes in Afghanistan
and the resumption of large-scale opium
production – did not change much in 2002. There
have been some moderate increases of heroin
and morphine seizures in Pakistan and Iran
Seizures in South-West Asia in kg
Heroin and morphine seizures
in South-West and Central Asia (1994-2002)
40,000
6,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
-
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
South-West Asia
Central Asia
5,500
5,000
4,500
4,000
3,500
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
Source: UNODC, Annual Reports Questionnaire Data / DELTA.
500
-
Seizures in Central Asia in kg
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