U.S. DRUG REPORTS DIFFER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000200300001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 29, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 19, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

0\
WASHINGTON STAR ?
sEcreiTreisUBLtt lease 2001k19'ruff": lia-RDP80-01
STATINTL
? By ? MICHAEL SATCHELL
. Star-News Staff Writer
'While secret intelligence re-
ports over the past 18 months
have presented a gloomy as-
sessment of America's world-
wide efforts to hamper inter-
national narcotics trafficking,
the White House and the Jus-
tice Depaitment have careful-
ly festered the epposite image
, ? . ? that the government was
' making significant gains in the'
, fight against opium, heroin
and cocaine smuggling.
; In speeches and press re-
. ? .leases, officials heralded Tur-
key's agreement to halt opium
? . poppy production, the increas-
ed cooperation with foreign :
governments-and record sei
7, -
.ures of narcotics as hard evi-
? deuce that the battle was well
.
on its' way to being won.
Dr. Jerome Jaffe, special
.Consultant to the president on
? narcotics,. and John E. Inger-
'soil, head of the Bureau of
;N ar coti e's and Dangerous
- .Drugs, called them "major
'breakthroughs' and "mile-
:stones in ? the cooperative ef-
fort '-with , foreign govern-
ments," ?
Thursday, ,the government
? released- a report entitled
?V!"World Opiuni Survey, 1972"
that reflected in part what in-
?'telligence netWorks had been
saying for 'months.
But While the report ac-
?.knowledged that things were
not as rosy as pictured earlier,
? it still glossed over most of the
, elects and conclusions con-
tained in Central Intelligence
Agency and .BNDD summaries
; that suggest the United States
has only touched the tip of the
world narcotics prbblem.
'These summaries, stamped
"Secret, No Foreign
Dissemi-
nation," survey narcotics pro- ?
duction and smuggling
throughout Asia, Europe, Cen-
Aral and South America.
They detail widespread corn-.
? plicity by officials in several
countries, suggest "extra-
?- legal" actions the United
States 'could consider, empha-
size that the 'Turkish agree-
ment will have little effect on
the U.S. heroin problem, note
that Vietnam war require-
ments have hampered the hap- ?
coties fight,, and conclude that !
the massive effort by the Unit-
ed .States and other nations,'
effect onnMr
has had ktv oug.
les trade.
nuo-
Among the major points in
the summaries:
o Prohibiting the growth of
opium poppies in Turkey is no
guarantee against illegal culti-
vation, which has been around
100 tons a year.
o The Turkish agreement will
have minimal Impact on well
established European smug-
gling pipelines that will easily
switch. from Turkey to Yugo-
slavia, Persia and Afghanistan.
for opium supplies..
o "Extra-legal actions such
as flooding markets with
harmless or aggravating hero-
in substitutes ? to destroy the
trade's credibility, destruction
of narcotics factories by hiring
criminal or non-official ele-
ments, pay-offs of corrupted
officials as .an income substi-
tute, and defoliation, are high-
ly problematical, but should
not be , rejected out of hand."
o The trade cannot flourish
without corrupt civil servants
and police in key positions. In
the "13 ulgarian Customs ,
Game" for example, govern-
ment officials sell to French
traffickers opium that 13ulgar-
? ian customs officials have con-
fiscated from smugglers. The
smugglers often pay small
fines and can even buy back
their own narcotics seized ear-
lier.
o Despite increased narcotics
seizures, no critical shortage
has been observed on the illicit
market.
o The probability of eliminat-
ing the trade in cocaine ?
currently the fastest growing
hard narcotic used in the Unit-
ed States ? is nil. ?
The gjA. and BIOD intelli-
gence summaries spell- out in
vivid detail. the enormous
problems facing the 'United
States in trying to curtail the
highly organized and. im-
meusely profitable internation-
al narcotics trade.
Illicit opium production, for
example, is' estimated at
something- between 1,200 and
1,400 tons each year. To pro-
duce enough heroin to satisfy
American -addicts and users,
only 40 tons of opium are re-
quired.
Turkish opium was furnish-
ing about 80 percent ,of the
heroin destined for the United
2tbs to with ? e. remater gsfa z 114031
The CIA reports state that in./
Burma, the most important
nation in the Golden Triangle ;
and which produces about 460
tons of opium annually,. the
United States is virtually im-
potent in its enforcement op-
portunities. ? ;
"Opportunities to exert in-
fluence are extremely limit-
ed," the reports say. "Lack of
U.S. leverage suggests the
best hope lies with the United
Nations. Burmese ? customs
and military officials are
ie-
ported in collusion with smug-
glers." ?
In neighboring Thailand, the
reports state, "officials of the
Royal Thai Army and Customs
at the several checkpoints
along the route to Bangkok are
usually bribed and 'protection'
fees prepaid by the smuggling
syndicate or by the driver at
the checkpoints."
-In the Vientiane to Hong
.Kong pipieline, the CIA sum-
maries report, "most of it is
probably smuggled aboard
.military. or . commercial air
flights including Royal Air/
Laos and Air Vietnam, often
,/
ie r
by or in
crew."
In recent years, the Golden
Triangle area has begun i to
produce finished heroin prod-
ucts for shipment rather than
simply raw opium or mor-
phine base from which the
heroin is made. ?
"The technology of refining
opium into heroin is no more
complex than making bootleg
whisky in the United States,"
a CIA report says, countering
the popular image of complii
cated heroin "laboratories."
Pressure in Europe is creat-
ing shifts in smugling pat-
terns with West ? Germany
emerging as a major narcotics
storage and staging area with
Munich, Frankfurt and Ham-
burg the principal centers:
The role of Bulgaria in re-
cent years has "increased tre-
? mendously"- and the Comm-
nist nation is used as safe
haven from which major nar-
cotics operations are directed.
""Sofia has been described as
the new center for directing
narcotics and arms trafficking
between western Europe and
the Near East," the reports
state; "French and United
.Kingdem officials have also
voiced their belief that BuLgar-
Ian government ofTicials may-
be actively involved in selling
seized Turkish narcotics to
French traffickers." ?
As South America emerges
as an important transshipment
pint for narcotics entering the
United States, there are indi-
ations of. increased produc-
tion of opium poppies in some
-Latin countries including the
Columbia-Equador border and
Costa Rica. .
. Cuban exiles and Puerto Ri-
can nationals are playing key
roles in the trade and produc-
tion is switching from mari-
juana to the more profitable
cocaine and heroin. ?
collusion with file
CIA-.RDP80-01601R000200300001-9
small amount from the Gold-
en Trangle area of Laos-Thai-
_
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JIMMY J. TAYLOR
non's Peking Talks Jolted
"
The CIA has reported to President .Nixon in
Peking that, as we withdraw our troops, the
Red forces are moving over Southeast Asia like
termites on a log. The current alarm concerns
Cambodia, Thailand and Burma, all three.
.. Cambodia is only the size of Oklahoma but it
has 6.7 million people. Th r ,'resident's Vietnam
pull-out was threatened 1._?, :.'0.r000 North Viet-
namese in Cambodia. Our .:,cursion into Cam-
bodia was a spoiling action covering our rear
guard in Vietnam. But since then the keystone
of the Nixon policy ? Vietnamization ? was
tested by the Vietnamese Army's protectionary
assault into Cambodia. And, as a demonstra-
tion to support the hope of Vietnamization, it
was tragically unpromising.
The CIA advised the President that the
disintegration heightens. The Cambodian Army
has only 33,000 men. Phnom Penh, the capital
Is cut off, of course, except for a single uncer-
tain road, but the Reds have now finished for-
tifying even fabulous Angkor Vat apd corn-
pletley control strategic Tonle Sap, the great
lake of Cambodia. Premier Lon Nol is pressed ?
toward a cease-fire..
THAILAND BORDERS on Cambodia; it
stands between Cambodia, Laos and Burma.
The Siamese (34.7 million people) call their
country Muang Thai, meaning Land of the Free
People,
It has always been fiercely independent. In
fact, Thailand is the only nation in the entire
area that never has been ruled by a foreign
power.
But the CIA has notified Mr. Nixon that Thai
Army Commanding Gen. Prapas Charusathien
reports that his units have intercepted Red
Chinese and North Vietnamese soldiers cross-
ing into Thailand's Sisaket and Surin prov-
inces, 250 miles northeast of Bangkok. General
Charusathien has ,only a 141,500-man force to
meet this expansion.
U.' S. AMBASSADOR TO CAMBODIA
Emory C. Swank, in turn, apprised of this, is
urging General Charusathien to add an army of
ethnic Cambodians to meet Mao Tse-tung and
Chou en-lai's expansion.
? Burma, about the size of Texas, has a long
common border with Thailand on Burma's
Shan states. But Burma (27 million people),
fabled in Kipling's verses, is as different from
Thailand as day and night. The home cotintry
of vacillating, mercurial former United Nations
Secretary General U Thant, Burma is one- of
Southeast Asia's most inaccessible and
mysterious countries
Its actual name is the Pyee-Daung-Su
Myanma Nainggan-Daw Union of Burma. The
country is utterly provincial, totally fatalistic
and unalterable Burmese. Neutralism, which
likewise mesmerizes U Thant, is a fixation and
isolationism a creed. ? ,a
BURMA CHIEF OF STATE Gen. Ne Win.
60, his lidded eyes as rich as jade in a face as
pale as bread and a man as wily and suspicious
as U Thant himself, once told me in Mandalay,
"Only Buddha can help anyone." And, not sur-
prisingly, Burma's Marxist economy - ap-
proaches absolute thrombosis.
Burma has a wild, mountainous 1,200-rhile
frontier ? a third as long as our Canadian
border ? with Red China. Its armed forces
total 137,500 men ? 6,500 of them in a Com-
pletely meaningless Air Force. ? ?
?
The, CIA reported to 'President Nixon in
Pcking'that 20,000 China-alined insurgents 'are
now battling these forces. They are in a Major
engagement near Lashio, close to Red China's
border. And, . reported the CIA, 3,000 Ncirth
Vietnamese are heading into Burma- Shan
state.
Ne Win incessantly travels abroad always
flamboyantly ? plays golf and hobnobs ?with
world dignitaries whenever possible and pre-
fers the city of Mandalay where "the dawn
comes up like thunder" to his capital ? of
Rangoon. And until now Red China has adopted
a restrained role toward Burma. The CIA opin-
ion is that Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai felt
that they can wait until Ne Win dies or ,is
booted out, as he booted out predecessor U Nu,
and.then Red China will be sucked into Burnia
as in a vacuum. ? ? '?
The CIA message to .the President changes
this. Unrevealed, Cambodia, Thailand , and
Burma alike suddenly jolt Mr. Nixon's Peking
talks and further complicate his success oVer
there. ?
? ?
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;y FLUX PELAITt Jr. New Yore: Tiro= .` CI ' \ `,.
ilhA ,
E Tht, 3 --,,,
-..), 1-LS` IrCMCY C)"Thei7C".1 " f Shan, Wa and P.-olrang area ls
iptcle. i ..)
This growth has been. atded,f picked by caravans that are put
1
,. ..
STATI NTL
WAS1IINGTON, June 9? i Z.- 1_ according to One Congressional itogether by the major insurgent
/United States intelligence
- I,: ----n, cently- of a. firm United StalesiC.I.A. study said. nhe. cirra-
authority, by ihe lack?until so- Headers in these areas," the
agents have identified at least
-..,?,,,, policy on heroin in Southeast vans, which can include an to
21. opium refineries in the bor-
421 . LAOS ;Asia. 'The United Siat.ceiSc-j-liashich 600 horses and donkeys and
der area of Iturma., Laos, and N???-i2,--v-?:,1FT,"-it----'-': -i-Ti !provides billions of in 300 to 400 men, lake the opium
Thailand that provide a con- f-,....- .1, ...... imilitary and economic foreign'on the southeasteily journey to
...,?,?,.. ..
L.,--,.____,--c---,,
'stant flow of heroin to Ameri-, Jat,%-mcY laid to Laos, Thailand and Can-lthe processin, plants that lie
r -noclia?has directed its offortrIalone the Mek'one River in the
r?Luclmr3
I
'Call troops in South. Vietnam. liii-et:an,1 t ,'I;,. ': - ' ,',. ? '
Operated and protected In \ in terceptinf2, the traffic at t u.,i, aehilelt.hiae Sri, j hatia?j?thm
Piurma and Thailand by insur- Saigota end of the line rather Honed Sai, Laos area."
Rent ri,iliec. and their ler.filers ''''' TIIAR.,Ain) A than to stamping out produc- .1-./.1e, ama1?sis ?m 4.,,,,?,?. ?..,_??_1..,
i,i Laos by cleinents of the / Lion at the sotirce, Representa-/ans urr,J,in;., '-',a,","?, ",'LL',.?,_",',,,
..1 Laotian armed forces, the t? lc,r,p,'Allg ? \V A., tive Robert H. Steele, RepubliaYintric t'o'nsi'hoici '1.?,":.2'e'n't?`gowrttlii-:.
. !ining and distributing have vir,?7.'. can of Connecticut, said tocliy. A metric ton is abou': 2,200'
Igroi.vn until white heroin rated ? ?. ....... __a.... .
1},/-?? ,.r...,,,g.t.,;:
CI iii.0, , , MI. Steele is the prin_cipal
96 per cent pure is turning up -,, ?.....,7, pounds.
in Pacific coast cities of the
United .States as well as in .::.'k ,,,..i.t c,.. K,LAO:C, (1 ,.,, ,,,t; i i ;;;.,:::..::: .
. , mating the numbers of heroin Of the 21 refineries identifed
The Purma-Laos-'1Otlilaild , , ,) i ii, It i )"'::=" -''':
,,,:,,,,,, Ard!- \. - addicts among American scrv- in the three ecunti?ies, seven
leemen in South Vietnam at \VETO eteSCribed in the report as
Saigon. .
border area, EllOW11 aS the .. ?.r,,A\ '' -""n N''''. 7''''''' 25,000.to 30,000.
, , ? ?: rr? ,
capable of pi!occs-ing raiwi
"Vietnam unquestionably opium to tile heroin stage. "The
Golden 'friangle," normally
'accounts for about - 700 toils of ,i:ra.,:,..:::..,!. ,,,,?22...?. ,---,.._.'a:LZ.::.;:::-.:'.. proves that the availability of most important are loca.ted in
Op
narcotics brceds usirrs," he said, the areas around Tcchilek, ium annually, or about half The Nu/ Yor}: Tir.iiis Jor,=, 6, 19/1
"Until we dry up the sources, Burma; P,allITOLICI (Ulict Nam
,the world's illicit procluction. Opium procluet from thr:
we haven t got a prayer cif corn- Ktung in Laos, and Mac Salong
Burma is the largest producer f?ntrionridir, area, knowp
in the region, accounting for as thrJ `Goldart Triangle,' battin.a., the problein," in Thailand," it said.
about 400 tons, While much of the opium "The hest. known, if not har.?7?:..
re SD in to lxs sbippol uioducing and refining takes est of thee s refineries is theRut a recent analysis by the through )tan Houei ,,'111,. place in areas of thirma, ',ties one at Lail Nottei Tap Laos .
('on 7-21 Intelligence Ai--;ency
Til;?:22
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; f .
f *A". 1,4 c L ? j A. t,
1
author 'of a recent report esti- 7 Important Refineries
sugge.ids that procluction is ex- tying- one to three tons of opium insuri;eni...,
. . and _Madan(' now controlled by near Pan Haunt sai, which is
Is narcotics onfol'ee- believed capable of processing
panding in the area,
and there ;and ctuant ities of morphin -m
e ent officials say that a con-, some 100 kilos of raw opium
are indications that this
year's base, "one trawlera clay moves tinuous flow of the drugsiper day," the report said.
itput may reach 1,000 tons, to the vicinity of the Chinese tluoT,1
A
? ,^,CVOITIr OD t-controll"d The opium and derivatives
.' ,???/.? Iligh-Grade Hi-tomCommunist-controlled Lema is- areas cannot be sustained with- crossing Thailand frt?)in Burma
lands-10 miles from llong ?out the involvement of corrupt
. C.I.A. a nalysis inade cinroute to )'ialigh-Olc Waa traced
, e major ?points about jie_ Ko ?
ngwhere the goods areioffieiais,
? in the paper as moving out of
cent trends m the illicit par- ,loaded into H ng. ong Ko junks.' 1 The same view was ex.
such Northern Thai towns as
:st .
q0P111131 a ed derivat (SI!N uny e 'pressed earlier in the wee]: bYiChiang Rae, Chiang Mai, I. ani
nolics business in Soother -
Asia: 1/ .11 on 0 1 ?1 ,
" aos and- are transtolan 11. Ingersoll, director of paim and 'fat: "by various
: g Refineries In Laos ?-?al`cc-iferred .from the Mekong River
Rile Pureau of Narcotics and modes of ground and water
Jefuteucr, by river craft and Dan Drugs, m testimony
Thailand that used to produce transpo.rt.
only refined opium, morphine, ivehicles to B n
an oucii Sai, !before the House Select Com- "'.I'he opium is packed by the
ifurther_ downstream on theimittee on Crime.
,base' and No. 3, heroin for growers and traded to itinerant
pure white heroin. The change Nei:ong in Laos, and are trans-I
!ported from there to Luang!
iPrabancr or Vientiane. A con-
. .
isiderahle portion of the Laotian- !government officials and mili-
'Mry 311eil iill'011rd1011t C01.1thePst
'Asia were deeply involved in
He said that middle-level
points pitrtienlarly 'troundfl-
-shio and Hen Tu'" 'the stti'ciY
Chinese merchants who trans-
port it 'to major collection
smoking are now converting
I
most of their opium supplies to'
No. - 4, or- 96 per cent
"appears to be due to the sud_ produced narcotics is smug-Ithe traffic in opium, the prod- said,
den increa.se in demand by a clod into Saigon." ? ? luct from which morphine and -
large and relatively affluent i t:I'-`An increased demand lot' heroin is refined. .
market in South Vietnam." iNo. 4 heroin also appears to. _ .
risei Itoutes and 'Refineries Named
(riViost of the narcotics buy- be reflected in the steady
ors in the tri_border area are in the price. For example, in i The analysis by the Central
ethnic Chinese who pool their mid-April, 197l, the price in the Intelligence Agency pinpointed
area fm?-? al major areas of cultivation, ie-
purchases, but no large synch- Tachilek [Burrna]
as re.' fineries and routes used in the
cate appears to be involved, The kilo of No. 4 heroin w
opium, morphine base and ported to be $1,780, as com- traffic? i.
Northeast Burma was iden-
heroin purchased in. ON 'area ,pared with $1,240 inSePtern-
tified as the ?largest producer
eventually finds its way to 'her, 1970." A kilogram is 2.2
and processor of raw opium in
. Bangkok, Vientiane and Luang p . L. - -1,
Prabang, where additional- pro- 1 - q"The reported increasing in- the border area. The study said
that Burma's 14 refineries, lo-
ceasing may take plate before cidence of heroin addiction,
delivery to Saigon, Hong 3-tong among U.S. servicemen in Viet-.'eated in the Tachilek area, last
genee ini year converted 30 tons of raw
and other international mar- nam and recent intelli
opium into refined opium, mor-
kets." - - - - !cheating that heroin traffic be,-
A "considerable quantity" of !tween Southeast Asia and the 'Aline base and heroin.
raw opium and morphine base United States ma Y also be in- "The ,opitim harvested in
from northeast Burma and creasing suggest That Southeast --
Thailand was smuggled into Asia is e,rowing in importance
Bangkok. and sent from there. as a producer of heroin."
Ito Hong Non" g in fishing trawl- ..
lers frorn_Jan. 1 to Kin-v--1 r-ar
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