The Hindu : New Delhi News : Cocaine in exchange of heroin

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Cocaine in exchange of heroin

By Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI, FEB. 22. With a gradual increase in consumption of cocaine and availability of high-quality white heroin from Afghanistan, international drug traffickers have adopted new ways of transactions among themselves. Discarding the old modus operandi of buying consignments against monetary payments, they are now relying more on the barter system where cocaine is exchanged for heroin.

The trend has been noticed in the recent cases unearthed by the Delhi unit of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). This past week, the NCB arrested three Central African nationals from whom they recovered 400 gm of cocaine and 5 kg of heroin. During interrogation, the accused, a Tanzanian national who was into cocaine supply, revealed that he first went to Goa, from where he came to Delhi to strike a deal with the other two accused when he was arrested.

While the cocaine seized from the accused is suspected to have been smuggled in from Latin American countries, the NCB officials believe that the seized heroin originated from Afghanistan, which was apparently smuggled either through Jammu or via Amritsar from Pakistan.

In a startling revelation, the accused disclosed that smugglers of cocaine were exchanging their consignments with heroin for sale in America, thereby doing away with separate/expensive trips in search of fine quality Afghani stuff in India.

With reports of bumper poppy crop harvest in Afghanistan in the past two years, the anti-narcotic agencies suspect that there has been a phenomenal increase in white heroin production lately. However, the heavy presence of international forces and a close watch being kept over drugs smuggling has led the Afghani drug lords to clandestinely supply their heroin consignments via the Golden Crescent -- the Afghanistan-Pakistan-India route -- to the other parts of the world.

Resultantly, the Central African drug smugglers active in India, who are mostly based in Delhi, have taken up the modus operandi of exchanging cocaine for heroin. Another major factor behind this pact is that highly concentrated cocaine, which is available for about Rs. 300 per gram back in Latin America, is sold at Rs. 4,000 per gram even after being mixed with other ingredients. The same way, heroin obtained from Afghanistan begets huge profits in America. Under this arrangement, it is believed that about 5 kg of heroin is supplied against 1 kg of cocaine.

While there has been an increase in the use of cocaine as a party drugs, the NCB had first noticed the trend of cocaine-heroin exchange arrangement in November-December last year, when they arrested at least three Central African nationals with drugs consignments. "By doing away with monetary transactions, drug smugglers have made the task of the international anti-narcotics agencies more difficult in keeping surveillance,'' said an official.

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