Posted on 02/24/2006 7:04:47 AM PST by ma bell
TIRANA, Albania-Organized crime is becoming more entrenched in the postwar Balkans and threatens stability across a much wider region, including Central Asia, the Caucasus and other parts of the former Soviet Union, the U.N.'s anti-drug chief said.
Highlighting one key problem, Antonio Maria Costa said the Balkans has become the most important route for Afghan drugs moving to the rest of Europe.
The Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, which he leads, is preparing a program to help countries in the region combat the illegal drug and weapons trades, human trafficking and other crime, Costa said Wednesday at a presentation to Albanian officials and Western diplomats in Tirana.
At the core of his strategy is encouraging the international community, which helped end years of war in the region in the 1990s, to support Balkan nations in strengthening the rule of law.
"Organized crime, money laundering, corruption and trafficking are major problems in the Balkans today," Costa said.
He said the trade in heroin and other drugs from Afghanistan on the way to Western Europe brings in an annual US$2.5 billion (€2.1 billion) for Kurdish, Turkish and Albanian cartels.
"The Balkan route of Afghan drugs is shown to be the most important conduit toward the rest of Europe," he said.
Human trafficking was "a low risk and high profit business throughout the Balkans," he said.
Organized crime flourished after years of war and international isolation left the region's authorities weakened and encouraged corruption.
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According to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, the Balkans has become the prime route for Afghan drugs destined for Europe. The effects on regional stability could be substantial.The Balkans has become a major hub for traffickers of heroin and other types of drug from Afghanistan, and this, along with an increase in known human trafficking, money laundering and corruption cases, threatens the stability of the whole region that includes Central Asia and the Caucasus. According to Antonio Maria Costa, who heads the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the trade of Afghan-grown drugs alone brings in over two billion euros for those cartels who operate along the so-called Balkan route.
Speaking in Tirana, Albania, on 22 February, Antonio Maria Costa urged the international community to support the nations of the Balkans region in strengthening the rule of law.
Afghan heroin is known to enter Europe via three routes across Romania, Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The UNODC has recently completed a comprehensive report on 'Crime and development in Africa,' and similar work is underway to reveal the relation between crime, poverty and instability in the Balkans and the affected Eastern European countries.
The Council of the EU adopted an Action Plan on Drugs between the EU and the Balkan states in June 2003. This political framework complements the EU's three major drug programmes CADAP, SCAD and BUMAD.
Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn toured the Western Balkans region last week in an attempt to bring home the message of the European future for the countries
fyi
bump
Also in the news, grass is green.
This just in, bears crap in the woods. Film at eleven!
fyi...this is whom tony savors and boasts of when he says he champions the muslim rights to soveriegnty within the balkans. They elicit freedom..yes, freedom to traffick in drugs in cooperation with Al-Q and their support network. How else would they be allowed to run amok with drugs from afghan when it is the AQ network support that controls it.
bump
FREE MILOSEVIC!!!!!
Golden triangle, revisited.
When did I ever say that, just because I challenge the accepted view of many on the Balkan war, war I was involved with as both a observer form afar and on the ground for over the first six year's as well as the Kosovo operation unlike most on here who learned it all from newspapers or the Internet.
By the way pleased to meet you ma bell.
"...Balkan war, war I was involved with as both a observer form afar and on the ground for over the first six year's as well as the Kosovo operation unlike most on here who learned it all from newspapers or the Internet."
The guys is all puff and no substance.... much like the muslims he loves so much!!
explain my ignorance.
don't jump in boy without backing up
Kin prove it what am I selective about.
Kin what you are talking about before you start spouting cr*p
The cartels thank the West for its futile but lucrative War On Drugs.
Ah, 6 years versus the people I know who have lived there for the past 20-40 years and still have to live there.
How am I your Kin?
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