Drugs, Law and Conflict

Photo courtesy of Boston.com Bringas

It seems that the 2009 UN World Drug Report, available here, has inspired The Boston Globe to come up with a compelling photo essay chronicling the War on Drugs and its effects throughout the world – definitely worth a look.

**Photo courtesy of the AP.

Harsh words from Richard Holbrooke, US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, on Saturday in announcing the end of US eradication policy. Calling eradication “a waste of money” and “a failure,” Holbrooke added that the US would use funds formerly dedicated to destroying poppy fields for “interdiction, rule of law, alternate crops.”

Wow. A big change indeed. But what’s next?

First, it’s important to recognize that the US is just one international actor participating in counter-narcotics and counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan. In fact, the Telegraph reports that Britain “leads international reconstruction efforts in Helmand province, where 60 per cent of the Afghan opium crop is produced. The British government is spending more than £290 million on a three-year-programme of eradication, support for farmers and pursuit of drug barons and traffickers.” And they have no plan to stop.

On the interdiction front, the foreign ministers Holbrooke addressed at Saturday’s G-8 meeting have called for a “regional intelligence network” to slow cross-border flows of precursor chemicals and processed opium. According to Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the UNODC, Pakistan and Iran will be key players. Highlighting the challenges ahead, though, Iran was uninvited from Saturday’s G-8 meeting following the government’s violent response to the post-election protest movement.

Regarding rule of law initiatives and alternative crop development, the question is not just one of money but also of will. Holbrooke told reporters Saturday that the US would increase its funds for agricultural assistance up to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Yet Jessica Thompson, writing for Sterling on Justice and Drugs, stresses the central challenge that remains unresolved: how to keep illegal funds not only out of the hands of al Qaeda terrorists, but also away from the corrupt Afghan government.

Finally, Alex Coolman of Drug Law Blog reminds us that the US continues a failed domestic eradication policy:

[California's CAMP campaign against marijuana] enriches the very people we’re ostensibly trying to combat — drug dealers — just like the Afghan eradication campaign “helped the Taliban” under a misguided attempt to combat the Taliban.This happens because — shock! — reducing the supply of something simply causes a corresponding increase in its price, and the drug producers therefore get to pocket more money than they would in the absence of such intervention…

Eradication didn’t work in Afghanistan. Maybe it’s time to realize that it’s a bad policy for California, too.

**Soldiers in Sierra Leone; photo courtesy of Reuters.

• The “biggest drugs trial in West African history” starts in Sierra Leone after the seizure of more than $40 million of cocaine. According to the UK-based Telegraph,

The twin-engined Cessna 441, carrying Venezuela’s national flag beneath fake Red Cross insignia, landed at Lungi airport last July with 703kg of cocaine. To extend its range, 34 containers filled with aviation fuel were in the rear of the plane. By pumping the vital liquid into the engines, the crew had kept the Cessna airborne for the trans-Atlantic flight…

Senior politicians have been mentioned during the trial, notably Ibrahim Kemoh Sesay, the transport minister. His brother, Ahmed, is among the accused.

• California State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano presents legislation to legalize and regulate the cultivation and sale of marijuana in the state, with the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act (text here). The plan would prohibit the sale of marijuana to anyone under 21, while bringing the state an estimated $1.3 billion a year (in tax revenue and a $50 fee to be imposed on registered retail outlets per ounce). According to the San Francisco Chronicle, an analysis from California’s tax collecting agency found that “legalizing marijuana would drop its street value by 50 percent and increase consumption of the substance by 40 percent.” As for the federal prohibition on marijuana, Ammiano said recently, “It’s not my nature and it’s not in California’s history to wait around for the feds.”

• The Department of Justice claims success against the Sinaloa cartel upon completion of “Operation Xcellerator.” See DOJ press release here. The DOJ will also end raids on medical marijuana dispensaries, Attorney General Eric Holder says.

• In the coming weeks, the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold hearings on Mexico’s drug violence, reports Reuter. According to Committee Chair Sen. Joseph Lieberman, “The recent escalation of violence along the southern border demands our immediate attention… We must assess border security programs and plans in place and we must review the readiness of federal, state, and local law enforcement.” The first hearing will occur in Washington DC on March 25; the second will be in Arizona in April.

• The LA Times reports that 5,000 more Mexican troops will be sent to Ciudad Juárez, to support the 1,600 local police, 2,000 soldiers and 425 federal police officers already there. This just a few days after Roberto Orduña Cruz, the city’s police chief, quit “after several officers were slain and someone posted threats saying more would be killed unless he stepped down.”

• In Foreign Policy, Robert Haddick from Small Wars Journal asks if Mexico is dealing with a crime problem, or war. Using the US Defense Department’s definition of irregular warfare (”a violent struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations”), Haddick argues that “Mexico’s struggle against the drug cartels seems more like a counterinsurgency campaign than a fight against crime.”

• Ex-president of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso, one of the co-chairs of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, answers questions about the Commission’s recommendations in Foreign Policy.

• Quote of the week: “I confess I feel somewhat frustrated.”–Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime

A year ago, a private jet crashed near Mérida, Mexico, with nearly four tons of cocaine on board belonging to Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, head of the infamous Sinaloa cartel. Mexican daily El Universal has now revealed that, according to US and European documents, the plane was previously used by the CIA for the rendition of terrorist suspects.

Records from the European Parliament show that the Grumman Gulfstream II jet made numerous trips to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as well as Italy, Canada and the UK. The plane’s last registered owner was a Floridian, who purchased it from a Brazilian businessman for $2 million in September 2007, eight days before it crashed.

So far, no comment from US officials about the CIA connection.

Speaking to a Florida newspaper after the crash, University of Miami professor and drug trade expert Bruce Bagley put the jet’s sale in the broader context of the ever-changing dynamics of the trade. Drug traffickers, he said, have begun to use the Caribbean corridor with greater frequency. “In the last 18 months to two years, there has been a return to the Caribbean drug routes,” he explained. “These aircraft seem to be linked to a growing trend.”

While only 10% of cocaine from the Andes has entered the US through the Caribbean corridor in recent years, that may be changing. Without a doubt, traffickers are always looking to innovate.