THE GLOBAL DRUG SCENE

1. FIRST IMPORTANT DRUG TRAFFIC ROUTE

MIDDLE EAST - discovery, plantation, cultivation, harvest.

TURKEY - preparation for distribution

EUROPE - manufacture, synthesis, refine

U.S . – marketing

2. SECOND MAJOR DRUG TRAFFIC ROUTE

o GOLDEN TRIANGLE- 2nd biggest producer of opium

a. Burma (Myanmar)

b. Laos

c. Thailand

d. Vietnam

Produces: 60% Opium – World

90% Opium – East Asia

South East Asia

- the golden triangle approximately produce 60% of opium in the world, 90% of
opium in the eastern part of Asia. It is also acknowledged source of Southeast
Asian Heroin.

o GOLDEN CRESCENT

– no. 1 producer of opium

a. Iran – major exporter of heroin

b. Afghanistan

c. Pakistan
+ d. India

Southwest Asia

- the Golden Crescent is the major supplier of opium poppy, MJ, heroin
products in the western part of Asia. It produces at least 85% to 90% of all elicit
heroin channeled in the drug underworld market.

3. THE WORLD'S DRUG SCENE

1. LATIN-AMERICAN COUNTRIES

– Colombian Medellin Cartel, Cali Cartel, Peru, are the biggest producer in the
world. It includes Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.

2. MIDDLE EAST

Becka Valley of Lebanon

- is considered to be the biggest producer of cannabis in the Middle East.

Lebanon

- also became the transit country for cocaine from South America to European
illicit drug markets.

3. SPAIN

- known as the major transshipment point for international drug traffickers in

Europe.

- “the paradise of drug users” in Europe.

4. SOUTH AMERICA

- Columbia, Peru, Uruguay, and Panama are the principal sources of all cocaine
supply in the World due to the robust production of coca plants- sources of the
cocaine drug.

5. MEXICO

- is known in the world to be the number one producer of marijuana (cannabis

sativa).

6. PHILIPPINES

- second to Mexico as to the production of marijuana.

- became the major transshipment point for the worldwide distribution of illegal
drugs particularly shabu and cocaine from Taiwan and South America.

- known as “the drug paradise of drug abusers” in Asia.

CORDILLERA – biggest producer of Marijuana in the Philippines

7. INDIA

- is the center of worlds drug map, leading to rapid addiction among its people.

8. INDONESIA

Northern Sumatra has traditionally been the main cannabis growing area in
Indonesia.

Bali Indonesia is an important transit point for drugs en route to Australia and
new Zealand.

9. SMT (SINGAPORE, MALAYSIA, THAILAND)

- is the most favorable sites of drug distribution from the golden triangle and
other parts of Asia.

10. CHINA

- is the transit route for heroin from the golden triangle to Hong Kong.

- where the ‘epedra’ plant is cultivated – source of the drug ephedrine – the
principal chemical for producing the drug shabu.

11. HONGKONG

- is the world’s transshipment point of all forms of heroin.

12. JAPAN

– became the major consumer of cocaine and shabu from the U.S and Europe.

4. THE ORGANIZED CRIME GROUPS BEHIND THE GLOBAL DRUG

SCENE

a. COLOMBIAN MEDELLIN CARTEL

- founded during the 1980’s by Colombian drug lords in the name of Pablo
Escobar Gaviria and drug bosses Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha and the top
aid cocaine barons Juan David and the Ochoa Brothers.
- The Medellin Cartel is reputedly responsible for organizing world’s drug
trafficking network.

b. CALI CARTEL

- the downfall of the Medellin Cartel is the rise of the Cali Cartel- the newly
emerged cocaine monopoly.

- the cartel produces over 90% of cocaine in the world.

- It was called the best and the brightest of the modern underworld.

“They are professionals of the highest order, intelligent, efficient, imaginative,

and nearly impenetrable”- US- Drug Enforcement Agency.

c. CHINESE TRIAD

- also called the Chinese Mafia is the oldest and biggest criminal organization in
the world.

- It is believe to be the controller of the “Golden Triangle” with international

connections on drug trafficking.

5. DRUG SYNDICATES

FILIPINO-CHINESE DRUG SYNDICATES

-are groups responsible in smuggling shabu into the country.

Most drug couriers use Hong Kong and Taiwan as their embarkation points for
the Philippines.

And recently, intelligence reports reveal that large quintets of shabu are
smuggled in the country directly from mainland China through commercial
airlines and ocean-sea vessels.

Binondo-based Chinese Syndicate has been identified as the nucleus of the

Triad Society.

Bamboo Gang based in Taiwan

14K based in Hongkong

The most common “modus operandi” by the syndicates – posing as

fishermen along Philippine seas, particularly, the northern provinces of Luzon
such as La Union, Ilocos, and Pangasinan where they drop their loads of shabu
to shoreline based members. The syndicates are famously involved in marijuana
cultivation and other drug smuggling including drug manufacture.

F. THE DRUG CHAIN

1. PRODUCTION – this pertains to the planting, growing, and harvesting of

plants, which are the sources of raw materials in the manufacture of precursors
and/or dangerous drugs.

2. PROCESSING – comes into play after harvesting the plants in the production
link.

3. TRAFFICKING – pertains to the surreptitious movement and delivery

of dangerous drugs from the clandestine laboratories to the wholesale markets.

4. FINANCING - pertains to the surreptitious movement and delivery

of dangerous drugs in big amounts of cash.

5. RETAILING – is the fifth link which involved the selling or pushing of drugs in
small quantities to the end-users at the street or grass root level.

6. CONSUMPTION – refers to the actual use of the drugs by the end-users

through injection, inhalation or smoking.