Heroin and cocaine routes cross in Balkans

PODGORICA High levels of corruption in the countries of the Balkan region make it favorable for drug trafficking, a Serbian lawyer and police analyst has said. Speaking for Montenegro's Mina news agency, Marko Nicovic explained that the situation additionally deteriorated due to poor training on sophisticated drug smuggling methods received by customs and police officers. Heroin and cocaine routes cross in Balkans Commenting on a recent statement by UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov that some 80 percent of narcotics from Afghanistan were being shipped through the Balkans, Nicovic also claimed that the most serious problem was that these drugs were stored in "in Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania": "The smugglers have huge quantities of money at their disposal, which they use to easily bribe police officers and judges, therefore the region is ideal for them, while it will take time to eradicate Southeast Europe's main problem, corruption." According to him, heroin is arriving to this region from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, mostly via Turkey and Bulgaria. However, another global drug route is brining cocaine to the Balkans - from South America, via seaports in Albania, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia. This expert explained that drug routes are now crossing in the Balkans - with one heading toward Western Europe, while the other has the U.S. and Canada as its destinations. At the same time, about 15 percent of the smuggled narcotics remain in the Balkan countries, where there are some 700,000 drugs addicts in the former Yugoslav republics and Greece and Albania. Nicovic also told the news agency that Montenegro is mostly consuming "high quality Albania-made marijuana", followed by cocaine and synthetic drugs, which he described as "cheap, and easily accessible to youths". "A gram of cocaine costs EUR 50, while a dose of methamphetamines or ecstasy costs only three to four euros," he noted, and added that poor countries were now faced with a wave of synthetic drugs in their illegal markets, "which are much quicker to destroy central nervous system and health of young people". Tanjug Mina

Heroin and cocaine routes cross in Balkans

Commenting on a recent statement by UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov that some 80 percent of narcotics from Afghanistan were being shipped through the Balkans, Nicović also claimed that the most serious problem was that these drugs were stored in "in Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania":

"The smugglers have huge quantities of money at their disposal, which they use to easily bribe police officers and judges, therefore the region is ideal for them, while it will take time to eradicate Southeast Europe's main problem, corruption."

According to him, heroin is arriving to this region from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, mostly via Turkey and Bulgaria. However, another global drug route is brining cocaine to the Balkans - from South America, via seaports in Albania, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia.

This expert explained that drug routes are now crossing in the Balkans - with one heading toward Western Europe, while the other has the U.S. and Canada as its destinations.

At the same time, about 15 percent of the smuggled narcotics remain in the Balkan countries, where there are some 700,000 drugs addicts in the former Yugoslav republics and Greece and Albania.

Nicović also told the news agency that Montenegro is mostly consuming "high quality Albania-made marijuana", followed by cocaine and synthetic drugs, which he described as "cheap, and easily accessible to youths".

"A gram of cocaine costs EUR 50, while a dose of methamphetamines or ecstasy costs only three to four euros," he noted, and added that poor countries were now faced with a wave of synthetic drugs in their illegal markets, "which are much quicker to destroy central nervous system and health of young people".