السعودية تستحوذ على 28% من الاستهلاك العالمي للحبوب المخدرة 'الكبتاجون'
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Saudi amphetamine seizures increase to 28% of world total
By Stephen Fidler in London
Published: June 27 2008 03:00 | Last updated: June 27 2008 03:00
Seizures of amphetamines have risen sharply in Saudi Arabia, suggesting a surge in consumption of the illegal stimulant in the kingdom, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported yesterday.
Saudi Arabia accounted for 28 per cent of all global amphetamine seizures in 2006, the latest year for which data are available, according to the UNODC's annual report.
The quantities impounded in the kingdom started to rise sharply in 2004 and reached 12.3 tonnes in 2006. 'This is equivalent to the sum of all UK seizures - the biggest amphetamine market in Europe - from 2000 to 2006,' the report said.
A further two tonnes of amphetamines destined for Saudi Arabia were seized in neighbouring Oman.
Antonio Maria Costa, the UN agency's executive director, said his organisation was talking to the Saudi government about the trend, which appeared to have continued into last year.
'If you are asking me for an explanation, I don't have it. I'm very perplexed,' Mr Costa said.
'Assuming that the efficiency of law enforcement doesn't change very much over a short time, it suggests that this had been mostly for local consumption.'
In another important shift, the report noted a sharp increase in the area of coca cultivation in Colombia, reversing a five-year decline.
It said that about 99,000 hectares were under coca bush cultivation last year - an increase of 27 per cent or 21,000 hectares over 2006.
However, it added that many of the areas now growing coca were higher and more remote than in the past and, as a result, yields were lower.
This meant that overall cocaine output in Colombia had risen by only a modest 1 to 2 per cent, the UNODC estimated.
Mr Costa said it was possible that eradication activity in Colombia had pushed cultivation into more remote areas. He said the cocaine market seemed to be undergoing significant change. Colombia's Farc guerrilla group, under whose protection much of Colombia's coca is produced, was 'in disarray', he said, having lost some key leaders.
Colombian cartels had been pushed out of Mexico and, in the face of a slowly declining US market, new smuggling routes had been opened up to Europe via west Africa, threatening countries in that region such as Guinea-Bissau.
The journey to west Africa was made by aircraft or boat from Venezuela or Brazil. Small vessels tended to travel at night so they could not be picked up by satellite surveillance, and they could make the transatlantic crossing in four to five nights, said Mr Costa.
In another development, he said that Afghanistan rivalled traditional producers such as Morocco in the area of land under cannabis cultivation.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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