Hash
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Robert currently works for various countries as a consultant in drug prevention and anti-smuggling operations. ‘It’s been an incredible eye opener for me. So few countries even have a clear anti-drug policy. Most of them just don’t have the finances to properly try and crack down on drug shipments. I often get hired to help on the ground officers learn how to uncover drug shipments but of course that is only a small part of the preventative programme. You need money and technical resources to really make a dent in drug trafficking.’
Robert is not optimistic about the future. ‘I think the influx of foreign gangs into countries like the UK, France, Spain and Italy is already causing a flood of poor quality recreational drugs into those nations. These gangsters are desperate to make the biggest profits possible while they attempt to make a mark for themselves as criminals. Countries like the UK are being swamped with four times the amount of hash that used to come in as these criminals try to create huge markets out of substandard, dangerously-cut drugs, and that includes hash.’
And, says Robert, the authorities have little or no chance of infiltrating these gangs. He explains: ‘The police and other authorities rely on informants but it’s getting harder and harder to infiltrate these criminal gangs because they are such tightly knit groups. Informers are few and far between these days. The gangs from eastern Europe are so ruthless that other criminals don’t dare cross them.’
Three years ago, Robert was given a six-month contract to work with the Afghan police to try and stem the flow of hash from the troubled, war-torn nation. ‘It was pretty pointless. I felt as if I had been hired by the Afghan government simply to keep the Americans happy. None of the locals care about the illegalities of hash or even heroin for that matter. Many of the farmers have been selling it to the west for thirty, even forty years. They consider it a crop just like anything else and most of the local police feel exactly the same way.’
Robert believes that the Afghan government tacitly allows the cultivation of cannabis because it employs tens of thousands of Afghans. ‘It’s similar to Morocco but on a smaller scale,’ he explains. ‘I tried my hardest to explain the attitudes [to drugs] in the West to the Afghan police but even the top officials looked at me like I was mad.’
But it wasn’t until Robert agreed to go for dinner at the house of a local police chief that he fully appreciated just how different that attitude was. He continued: ‘It was typical Afghan generosity. This police chief laid on a huge meal for me with his family and friends in his house. I felt quite humbled when I turned up there and saw how much effort they’d made.’
Then two of the police chief’s adult sons sat down either side of Robert. ‘And d’you know what they did? They each lit up a hash joint and started smoking it there right in front of my eyes. I didn’t know what to say, so I ignored it but then the police chief himself pointed out what they were doing and I realised it was a deliberate attempt to try and convince me that hash was part of normal Afghan society.’
Robert sums up: ‘I don’t know how we in the West can overcome those sort of attitudes towards hashish. Sometimes even I believe that it might be a whole lot easier if recreational drugs were legalised and then we could at least control it more closely but I can’t see the politicians doing that in my lifetime, although they will in the end.’
PART SIX
HASH – ON A GLOBAL SCALE
If the current rate of new hash recruits continues it is estimated there will be one billion smokers by the end of this century.
CHAPTER 24
A WORLDWIDE SURVEY OF THE HASH BUSINESS
AFGHANISTAN
A recent United Nations report on cannabis in Afghanistan revealed that between 10,000 and 24,000 hectares of cannabis plants are grown in Afghanistan every year. While other countries have far larger cannabis cultivation, the astonishing yield of the Afghan cannabis crop (145 kilograms per hectare of hashish, the resin produced from cannabis, as compared to around 40 kg/ha in Morocco) makes Afghanistan the producer of the world’s most powerful hash. The UN survey exposed large-scale cannabis plant cultivation in half of Afghanistan’s provinces, where it is three times cheaper to cultivate a hectare of cannabis plant than a hectare of opium poppies. The UN has urged authorities to find legal crops for the Afghan farmers to make their income from, but there is little hope of this ever happening as long as worldwide demand for hash continues. And like so many terrorist groups across the globe, the Taliban’s struggle against the Coalition forces is said to be subsidised by hash production.
ARGENTINA
In Argentina hash is an immensely popular recreational drug. In early 2012, the Argentine Navy stopped a lorry driver on an isolated coastal road in the province of Missiones after the vehicle was seen making a beachside ‘pick-up’ that turned out to be of more than a ton of hash. The navy also discovered an abandoned boat nearby. The final haul consisted of 822 bricks of hash with a weight of 1,047.49 kilograms, said to be worth at least $1 million on the open market.
AUSTRALIA
Australia’s vast coastline is virtually impossible to police so authorities have fought a long and difficult war against hash smugglers. One of their few successes was in June 2012, when New South Wales police arrested 18 people and seized more than 20 kilograms of hash during simultaneous raids targeting the drug trade. Nearly 150 officers executed 18 search warrants at locations from the Sydney suburbs of Bondi and Cabramatta north to Tuggerah Lakes, Forster and Tamworth in a massive swoop by officers.
BALI
Bali fiercely protects its reputation as a safe, peaceful holiday island by warning hash users and smugglers they risk a death sentence if caught. Two Russian nationals are the latest narco-tourists to face the death penalty if convicted. One of them, a 30-year-old yoga teacher was held in Bali after arriving from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, with 88 hashish capsules in his stomach. Two days later another Russian national, a 43-year-old art designer, swallowed 359 hashish capsules and was also arrested in the Bali airport. Both men had bought their hash in India and officials said the total value of the drugs was estimated at 966 million rupiah ($105,300). Meanwhile in neighbouring Indonesia, a 57-year-old Dutchman was arrested at Lombok’s airport in 2012 after arriving from Singapore carrying 3.7 kilograms of hash in the lining of his suitcase. He also could face the death penalty if found guilty.
BRAZIL
In one notorious Rio favela (shantytown) called Mandela, drug dealers have stopped selling crack and encouraged more dealing in hash because they believe it is ‘less harmful’ to the community. The drug bosses, often born and raised in the very slums they now lord over, say crack destabilises their communities, making it harder to control areas long abandoned by the government. Law enforcement and city authorities, however, take credit for the change, arguing that drug gangs are only trying to create a distraction and persuade police to call off an offensive to take back the slums.
CANADA
Canada’s role inside the secret underworld of hash is pivotal as it provides a gateway to the lucrative US market. As a result, there has been a steady increase in hash seizures over the last ten years. The home market for smoking has also increased significantly and latest Canadian statistics show the highest proportion of hash smokers in the country are aged between 15 and 24. Canadian authorities say that by targeting young people, traffickers are leaving a trail of ruined lives, unrealised potential, health care costs, lost productivity, crime associated with drugs and related violence which often affects a user’s family and friends. In Montreal, the alleged head of a street gang of hash dealers was one of three men killed in the city during one deadly 48-hour period in early 2012. In Toronto, a much-feared hash gangster was deemed too dangerous to be released from prison after it was discovered he’d managed from inside jail to arrange hash shipments from Jamaica, tamper with a witness testifying against him and orchestrate an attack on an inmate at another prison.
CHILE
In October 2012, Chile proposed a bi
ll that would legalise the consumption, possession and cultivation of marijuana. Prior to the introduction of the legalisation bill, one of its proponents even publicly admitted his own use of hash in an attempt to show that use doesn’t equal abuse. But his comments prompted an attack by hysterical conservative opponents, who then spearheaded a bill to ‘prohibit marijuana use in Congress’.
CHINA
China has a steadily increasing number of cannabis smokers. The Chinese government estimates that there are between 2 and 3 million drug users in China and at least one million of them smoke hash. To put these figures into perspective, when Mao came to power in 1949 there were an estimated 20 million drug users in China. Using harsh methods, including executions, the Communists were able to rid China of its drug problem almost overnight. Then in the 1980s, China opened up more and eased its border controls and drugs began flowing into the country. But it wasn’t until the turn of the new century that drug use really took off. China still has tough, some would say draconian, drug laws. Getting caught dealing or trafficking even small amounts of hash can result in a death sentence. Meanwhile secret hash ‘farms’ have been set up in some of the poorer regions of the country. It is reckoned that over the next 20 years, the Chinese underworld will push up production in order to cash in on the international hash market.
COLOMBIA
Back in the late 1970s, Colombia was one of the world’s major marijuana producers before it became better known for its cocaine production. Now drug barons are encouraging a comeback to their former days of hash glory. In the summer of 2012, Colombian police seized almost 10,000 pounds – nearly five tons – of marijuana with an ‘estimated street value’ of $5.5 million over the span of three days in the cities of Medellin and Pereira.
The city of Medellin – once notorious for its cocaine traffickers and birthplace of the legendary drug baron Pablo Escobar – is emerging as the new ‘capital’ for hash production. Police uncovered 5,000 pounds of cannabis in a truck carrying oranges in 2011. The massive payload – consisting of more than 101 bales of marijuana – weighed almost 6,000 pounds. That shipment belonged to a crime lord known only as ‘Sebastian’, head of the ‘Oficina de Envigado’, a crime syndicate founded by Pablo Escobar, which still allegedly holds majority control of Medellin’s underworld.
DENMARK
In Denmark, Hell’s Angels gangs dominate the hash business. In 2012, one such gang admitted smuggling 3.6 tons of hash. A court heard that the Danish police’s gang unit, Task Force East, had gathered video surveillance of four bikers storing the drugs at various locations. The 53-year-old leader of the gang owned a sports car, jewellery, a large amount of cash and a villa – assets which he had earlier claimed came from a large lottery win. Near Copenhagen, a small ‘hash’ community has sprung up in a quiet village called Christiania. Visitors to the village are able to buy all grades of hash openly. Huge blocks of hash are openly displayed on tables on both sides of the main street on market stalls made of wood and plastic. Prices vary from €8 to €20 depending on the quality, claim the dealers. However, Christiania is much more than just a hash market. Inhabitants run it as a self-sufficient village with its own houses, a school and even a bar. One recent visitor described the village as ‘a hash resort’.
GERMANY
The hash market in Germany is described by experts as ‘steady’ and ‘very open’ as authorities tend to take a lenient attitude towards smokers. Like Denmark, many of the hash gangs come from within the Hell’s Angel biking communities. In 2012, police raided a Hell’s Angels hide-out in the German city of Düsseldorf and entered a World War II bunker to find a huge cannabis plantation – complete with a round-the-clock team of professional gardeners.
GHANA
Hash barons have turned Ghana into a worldwide drugs hub. Often shipments of the drug from Morocco travel south to Ghana and Gambia before being flown or shipped back north into Europe. One hash baron was arrested in Gambia and then escaped police custody and took refuge in Ghana. He was eventually extradited back to Gambia in early 2012.
Investigations conducted by security agencies revealed that the same drug baron had travelled widely across the world, visiting countries such as the UK, France, Belgium, Benin, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Jamaica, the UAE, Sierra Leone, Togo, The Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia.
GREECE
Hash production is rife on the holiday island of Crete. In many remote mountain villages, cannabis growers and dealers routinely take pot-shots at police helicopters or vehicles patrolling their area, prompting the Greek media to refer to this region as a ‘Greek Colombia’ and a ‘narco state within a state’.
In 2010, three Greek police officers taking part in a raid on a hash plantation were ambushed and shot at by suspected growers armed with AK-47s. The attack took place in the village of Malades, about nine miles from Heraklion, the island’s largest city. The shooting was the second serious attack by hash growers against police on the island in seven months. The Greek government responded with a massive police sweep and house-to-house searches. Police arrested 16 people in connection with the ambush and a series of bank robberies, but recovered none of the hash and very few of the heavy weapons, believed to have been used in that assault.
GUATEMALA
Hash is big business in Guatemala. Not only is it an ideal dropping-off point for drugs travelling to North America, but a large section of the local population smoke cannabis.
Crime cartels – many of whom smuggle hash – are said to be winning the multi-billion-dollar drugs war. The Guatemala government admits there is little hope of bringing most of them to justice. President Otto Perez Molina – who has spent more than 20 years on the frontline battling some of the most vicious drugs gangs in the world – says narcotics of all kinds should now be viewed in the same way as alcohol and tobacco – and legalised. Many of those fighting the powerful drug cartels in Central and South America agree with the Guatemalan president that legalisation of hard drugs is the lesser of two evils.
INDIA
Authorities in India are increasingly concerned by the criminal connections between hash production and terrorism. This was highlighted by the 2012 arrest of two men who worked for one of the country’s most notorious hash barons, also suspected of being the mastermind behind the 1993 Bombay (now Mumbai) bombings that left over 250 dead. India claims that narco-terrorism is a threat to itself and the global community.
The US state department even published evidence that exposed the same Indian gangs’ regular hash smuggling routes, which crossed South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa – from Afghanistan and Thailand to the US, western Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.
ISRAEL
There is a big hash-smoking culture in Israel, which is often overshadowed by the conflicts that continue to rage in that part of the world. In the capital Tel-Aviv, local cops don’t even bother going after hash users and suppliers. Much of the hash consumed comes in via neighbouring Arabs. They smuggle it in through the West Bank, some of it wrapped in large bundles with eagles emblazoned on the seals, with the slogan, written in Arabic, ‘We are the victors!’
ITALY
There is an ever-increasing demand for hash in Italy, thanks to millions of regular smokers. In July 2012, police in the south of the country arrested ten people and impounded over seven tons of hash in an operation against an alleged trafficking gang importing the drugs from Spain. The suspects were arrested and charged with drug trafficking. Police also recently seized seven tons of cannabis in the northern city of Genoa, during an operation that led to the international arrests of nine men in Canada and two in Pakistan.
JAMAICA
Hash has been a way of life for many growers and users here for many decades but in recent years the authorities have tried to ‘clean up’ the island’s image by cracking down on the mass hash production on their doorstep. It’s claimed that much of the confiscated hash eventually finds
its way back onto the island’s lucrative drugs market. But Jamaican authorities have now begun a programme of publicly destroying huge quantities of hash oil during burning operations on wasteland near the capital, Kingston.
JAPAN
Japan’s notorious gangsters, the Yakuza, have been involved in the hash trade for centuries. This Japanese version of the mafia claims to be descended from Robin Hood-like characters, who defended their villages against roving bandits many centuries ago. But today, the Yakuza is a mighty and entrenched criminal network with nearly 80,000 members operating in 22 crime syndicates, and raking in billions of dollars a year, much of it from the sale of hash on Japan’s streets.
KUWAIT
The emergence of hash in Kuwait has alarmed officials in the oil-rich kingdom. Two Kuwaitis were recently arrested for possessing hashish when their car was stopped for driving too close to the US Embassy in Kuwait City. Not long after this, a Kuwaiti youth was arrested by a police patrol for possessing hashish and was immediately handed over to the General Department for Drug Control.
In June 2012, a gang of hash smugglers dumped 242 kilograms of cannabis in the ocean off Kuwait when they spotted a Coast Guard boat approaching. Authorities had been alerted thanks to the Coast Guard surveillance system that detected a motorboat entering the territorial waters of Kuwait. The men on the boat threw two bags into the sea before they were arrested. A team of divers later retrieved the two bags.