Cooperation Disrupts Drug Trafficking

Law enforcement programs increase information sharing and strengthen border crossings

UNIPATH STAFF

Central Asia is awash in heroin and raw opium smuggled from Afghanistan. The numbers are staggering: Traffickers moved 90 tons of heroin and nearly 40 tons of raw opium through Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in 2010. But country by country and city by city, authorities are working to address the problem.

The Uzbek National Center for Drug Control says that in the first half of 2011 law enforcement agencies seized 2,457 kilograms (5,417 pounds) of illicit drugs, a 21 percent increase over the same period in 2010. The Turkmen government seized 635 kilos (1,400 pounds) in the first six months of 2012, nearly as much as they seized in 2011, when 748 kilos (1,648 pounds) were seized.

Toktomamat Mamashev, head of the Kyrgyz Drug Control Agency, said that 2012 seizures for the city of Osh alone included “over 6 tons of various drugs, including over 76 kilograms (168 pounds) of heroin, 51 kilograms (112 pounds) of hashish, over 1 ton of cannabis, and over 5 tons of drug precursors.”

Revenue from narcotics sales not only supports the Taliban’s war of terrorism against the Afghan government and civilians, it also funds violent extremist organizations in Central Asia.

Authorities are fighting this transnational threat by partnering to increase law enforcement capacity, especially at border crossings. Because most drugs are smuggled between countries in trucks, trains and airplanes, regional governments are working with the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and European Union (EU) to develop law enforcement programs that strengthen border crossings and help police thwart traffickers.

The initiatives are producing results. In 2012, for example, Kazakh officials uncovered 4 tons of illegal drugs worth about $13 million — a seizure that disrupted local drug rings and international smuggling cartels. But law enforcement can’t afford to rest on its laurels, even after such spectacular success. They know the criminals won’t be giving up any time soon.

“The forces involved in drug smuggling will always be interested in seeing the regional countries in a state of instability,” independent political scientist Zakir Khodzhiyev told Central Asia Online.

Toxic substance
Although the vast majority of illicit drugs end up in other markets — mostly in the Russian Federation and Europe — even the small percentage that stays in Central Asia creates big problems for the region: Intravenous drug use and HIV infection have increased with the narcotics trade.

In addition, traffickers often try to use proceeds from drug sales to bribe officials. To combat this insidious trend, the Uzbek government hosted a series of U.N.-run anticorruption workshops in 2011 that were attended by workers from the prosecutor general’s office, law enforcement agencies, the supreme court and parliamentary staff members.

Drug-related violence is another plague. In the same month as the workshops, three armed Afghans crossed the border and kidnapped four Tajik citizens for ransom. The hostages fought back and killed their captors, but one hostage also died in the struggle. Villagers say drug couriers frequently kidnap Tajiks to raise money or settle scores.

So what’s the answer? A 2012 UNODC report on opiate trafficking in Central Asia concluded that regional cooperation must remain a priority. This includes increased intelligence sharing and interagency coordination, such as cooperation between regional customs unions and law enforcement agencies, combined training courses, extradition agreements, and mutual legal assistance.

Information sharing
One such multilateral program, the Central Asia Regional Information and Coordination Center (CARICC) began operations in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2009. The center helps law enforcement throughout the region fight organized crime and drug trafficking with information and resources from UNODC, Interpol, Europol and the World Customs Organization.

Kazakh Lt. Gen. Beksultan Sarsekov, the center’s first director, predicted in 2008 that CARICC would set new standards in the battle against transnational drug trafficking. “So far, cooperation has only existed between similar agencies: police in one country with police with another,” he said as the center prepared to become fully operational. “Our task is to make sure any agency engaged in counternarcotic activities — be it customs, border control or specialized drug agencies — can cooperate with any other agency in another country, when need be.”

The center reported quick results. In its first six months, CARICC coordinated special operations to disrupt the activities of transnational drug groups and shut down 20 international drug-supply channels to Europe and China. Thirty-eight members of criminal groups were arrested, and 232 kilograms (511 pounds) of heroin and 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of hashish were seized.

Cooperative approach
UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov credited CARICC with improving coordination among law enforcement agencies in Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. “The Central Asian states are presented with a geographical challenge in the international drug fight,” he said after meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2011. “The work in countering organized crime and drug trafficking, which I am pleased to see is increasingly taking on a cooperative approach, is so critical to international safety and security.”

But maintaining regional cooperation to fight the Afghan drug trade remains a challenge, noted a 2012 UNDOC report. Although CARICC “is the dedicated law enforcement body focused on providing a working platform for intelligence sharing and joint operations, … [it] is not being utilized to its full potential and some countries do not share operational information or enter into multilateral operations. The unfortunate truth is that criminals cooperate much better than law enforcement agencies in the region.”

Better borders
The Border Management Programme in Central Asia (BOMCA), a partnership of the EU, UNDOC and Central Asian states, focuses on making the region more secure by improving screenings at border crossings.
Since 2003, the program has supplied modern technology and built new border facilities. EU member states also dispatched law enforcement teams to train border guards in Central Asia on the new equipment and taught techniques for detecting drugs, weapons and other contraband.

BOMCA has grown into one of the EU’s biggest programs in Central Asia.

In addition to stemming the tide of illegal drugs in Central Asia, BOMCA’s benefits extend outside the region by stopping extremists, drug traffickers and illegal immigrants who would otherwise slip across borders undetected and become threats elsewhere.

BOMCA began operations in 2003 with the overarching goal of helping Central Asian border authorities strike a balance between security that stops criminals and openness that encourages trade. Implementing this concept was a challenge on frontiers plagued by cross-border terrorism, drug trafficking and undocumented migration. Another problem was that border authorities maintained widely varying staffing levels, equipment and attitudes.
Uzbek border authorities, for example, were wary of adopting measures that would move traffic through crossing points more rapidly, most likely due to concerns that a quicker process would allow contraband to slip past them undetected. Kyrgyz and Kazakh border authorities, in contrast, wanted to speed up processing but lacked the technology to automate passport processing.

A central part of BOMCA’s action plan was introducing border-management rules that encourage coordination between authorities. States could, for example, pool funds to build a dormitory for both sets of border guards and split the savings. Authorities were also encouraged to provide local points of contact for police on both sides of the border to help keep misunderstandings to a minimum.

Ultimately, the program won friends by providing updated equipment, including night-vision goggles and thermal cameras. The program also supplied more routine hardware, such as refrigerators, which allowed guards at remote locations to store food and remain on duty longer.

Tajik success
BOMCA put an early emphasis on Tajikistan, which shares a 1,300-kilometer (810-mile) border with Afghanistan and, because of this geography, serves as a major transit point for Central Asian drug shipments. Since 2005, BOMCA has built and equipped three new three international border crossings on the Tajik-Afghan border and another on the country’s border with Uzbekistan.

In 2011, Tajik law enforcement agencies opened a center for drug-sniffing dogs and their handlers. BOMCA funded the administrative building and quarters for students and staff. The training center now protects two Tajik airports and four rail stations with canine teams able to detect hidden drugs and explosives.

BOMCA and other partner-based initiatives seem to be making a difference. In December 2012, a BOMCA official and Bunavsha Odinayeva, deputy director of the Tajik Drug Control Agency, announced that drug seizures had increased. “We believe the key to success in the fight against drugs,” Odinayeva said, “is forging partnerships.”

Sources: Central Asia Newswire; Central Asia Online; Eurocam (eurocam.com.tr); European Centre for Monitoring Alcohol Marketing; Ferghana News Agency; Foreign Military Studies Office: “Drug Control in Central Asia,” by Timothy A Krambs; Ocnus.net; Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe: Economic and Environmental Forum; U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime