Category

Asia

• Asia, Legislation, War on Drugs

  Conservative Party leader urged to back Afghan opium legalisation

  07.24.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  Senior MPs (Members of Parliament) of the UK’s opposition Conservative Party are reportedly calling for their leader, David Cameron, to get behind a move to get opium production legalised in Afghanistan, as he pays a surprise visit to the war-torn country.

  According to The Guardian, opposition whip Tobias Ellwood would like the opium to be sold on the open market for opiate-based medicines, because:

  * the opium eradication programs, highly unpopular with poor farmers, puts British soldiers in danger as farmers give their support to the Taliban;

  * £600m was spent last year on eradication and opium exports were the biggest ever;

  * it could divert some production away from the illegal market; and

  * there is a worldwide shortage of opiate based-medicines.

• Asia, Smuggling

  Patric Thomas Malujo gets 10 years of “rigorous imprisonment”

  07.19.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  Patric Thomas Malujo, a British national, has been sentenced to ten years of “rigorous imprisonment” - hard labour - by an Indian court for smuggling charas (hashish) plus a fine of 100,000 rupees (US$2,100).

  There aren’t too many details on the case other than in November 2003 one of three unattended bags on a bus from Delhi to Mumbai were found by police to contain 35 packets of charas. They were picked up from two seats that had been booked by Malujo and another Brit, John Donho. In February 2004 Mumbia police arrested Malujo. Donho, who still faces trial, was picked up in Goa. Malujo will appeal to the Rajasthan High Court.

• Asia, Europe, Smuggling

  An update on Badruddoza Chowdhury Momen

  07.17.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  Last month I wrote about Badruddoza Chowdhury Momen, the Bangladeshi businessman who was arrested in May on charges of smuggling heroin into the United Kingdom and then denied bail.

  Well, it turns that he has since then confessed to police and a magistrate that he was involved in smuggling the drugs through ghost companies tied to BD Foods Limited, the food import company he is the chairman of. He has secured three months interim bail, although prosecutors have appealed this ruling.

• Asia

  Drug Accusations as a Credibility Destroyer

  07.17.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  A recent article regarding the sale of drugs by women of the Muslim minority in Manipur sparked a few thoughts about the use of accusations as a destroyer of crediblity - especially when it comes to drugs.

  The article had all of the hallmarks of a crediblity attack. In addition to isolating the Muslim minority of Manipur as the source of drug sales in the region, it went further in naming the women of that minority as the main culprits, all the while being devoid of facts like health or legal statistics that would support the accusation.

• Asia, War on Drugs

  Rumsfeld Ties Taliban to Drugs

  07.11.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  The Washington Times (among others) has run a story regarding the recent assertions by US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, that the Taliban in Afghanistan may be profitting from the trade in illegal drugs.

  According to Rumsfeld, this may be part of what is fueling the resurgance in Taliban fortunes in the country that has seen major setbacks for the onset of democracy due to Taliban resistance and incursions.

  “I do worry that the funds that come from the sale of those products could conceivably end up adversely affecting the democratic process in the country,” said Rumsfeld.

• Asia, People

  Bernard Liu

  07.10.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  Bernard Liu is a former drug henchman and also a witness in a government investigation into illegal narcotics on the island of Cebu in the Philippines.

  After the recent murder of congressman, Ananias Dy, who was also a witness in the government investigation, Bernard Liu has been urged by authorities to give himself up for his own protection.

• Asia, Oceania, Smuggling, The Media

  Drug smuggling and the death penalty

  07.09.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  If drug couriers are likely to face the death penalty if caught and convicted in a foreign country - and their home country doesn’t have capital punishment - should police from their home country still tip off those foreign authorities or just wait until they return home and then arrest them?

  This issue, which came up in the case of the Bali Nine, has been raised again in light of the arrest in Vietnam of an Australian couple on charges of attempted heroin smuggling. Vietnamese airport officials alleged Nguyen Van Huy, aged 36, and his 39-year-old wife, Hoang Le Thuy, had 500 grams of heroin hidden away in bottles of medication in their baggage, as they attempted to fly from Ho Chi Minh City back to their hometown of Melbourne. Their three daughters, aged between two and 10, were travelling with them and have been handed over to relatives. They face possible decades away from their parents.

• Asia

  When Drugs Become Cool

  07.05.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  When the cool set in any society takes on a new fad, then it will proliferate throughout that society.

  In India at the moment, that fad appears to be cocaine.

  The latest status symbol among the rising wealth of Indian twenty and thirty somethings is cocaine, a drug that is growing in prevalence in the cities of Delhi and Mumbai. The unique situation of India means, however, that its growing popularity is somewhat stifled.

• Asia, People

  The Hmong Tribe and Opium

  07.04.06 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  The Hmong are a hilltribe of southeast Asia, perhaps most famous for supporting the US in Vietnam against communist forces there and in neighbouring Laos.

  By some reckonings, up to 30% of the remaining Hmong are also opium addicts.

  This sad state of affairs really stems from a rather sad history for these people. As early as the 19th century, there are records of Hmong opium famers being displaced by Chinese incursions. Their involvement with the crop as producers goes back some time, but is also concurrent with growing use among their people of the drug.

• Asia

  Accused in high-profile Indian drug case to be given “brain-mapping” tests

  06.29.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  Events in the Rahul Mahajan drug prosecution have taken an interesting turn with a special Delhi court having just allowed police to subject him to “brain mapping” tests. Police had decided last week to withdraw their application for Mahajan and co-accused Sahil Zaroo to have a “narco-analysis” test performed on them.

  Mahajan, you may recall, is the son of slain BJP senior leader Pramod Mahajan who, along with his father’s former aide Vivek Maitra, collapsed at his Delhi home at the beginning of this month before being rushed to hospital; Maitra died on arrival. Zaroo was said to have supplied the drugs. Police, who don’t seem to have got very far with the accused, say they want to conduct the tests to get to the “truth”.

  During a “narco-analysis” test - also known as a “truth serum” test - the suspect is injected with sodium pentothal and then interrogated while under a hypnotic state.