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News Clippings
(29 April 1996) This report appeared in Sunday's
edition of The Daily Telegraph
How the drugs barons use live animals
as carriers
By Tom Baldwin and Rachel Sylvester
MILLIONS of pounds worth of cocaine and heroin hidden
in live snakes and other exotic animals has been smuggled
across borders, amid mounting concern at the links
between wildlife imports and the drugs trade.
Customs officers at Heathrow recently seized heroin
packed into the shells of live snails. Quarantine staff
also discovered cannabis stuffed into the head of an
antelope.
In Rome, investigators found heroin hidden in elephant
tusks. And 33 kilos of cocaine solution were recovered
from water containing tropical fish being imported into
the United States.
Hans Ellehaage, wildlife crime specialist for Interpol,
said: "It is generally believed among law
enforcement bodies that wildlife is being increasingly
used to import drugs."
British officials fear drugs may be pouring into the
country because wildlife imports - dead and alive -
entering the country are hardly ever checked. Heathrow
has the only team of specialist investigators in the
country, and imports coming in by other routes are rarely
searched.
"Generally animals do not get checked," said
Robert Quest, head of the animal quarantine division at
the airport. "If they come in at Gatwick, for
example, the chances of the shipment being examined are
virtually nil."
Tristan Bradfield, an animal expert based at Heathrow,
admitted that Customs officials were worried. He said:
"The point is we do not know how much does not get
detected."
At least three shipments of live snakes containing
cocaine have been seized in Miami
In the US, drugs worth up to $26 million a year have been
found in animal imports. But Samuel LaBudde of the
Endangered Species Project said: "Only five per cent
of shipments are inspected. The real value of this
contraband may be approaching $500 million every
year."
At least three shipments of live snakes containing
cocaine have been seized in Miami. On one occasion,
Customs agents carried out an operation called
"Cocaine Constrictor" after being tipped off
that Colombian cartels had stuffed the reptiles with
condoms containing the drug.
A total of 305 five-foot-long boa constrictors were
discovered. In each case, eight ounces of cocaine had
been forced up the snake's rectum, which had then been
sewn up. All but 63 died. There is evidence that the same
method is being used to import drugs into Europe.
Interpol has uncovered at least one case of snakes
stuffed with narcotics at Stockholm airport. And
Jean-Patrick Le Duc of the Switzerland-based Convention
of International Trade in Endangered Species has
confirmed that his organisation is investigating the
links between drug smugglers and the trade in animals.
The relationship between organised criminals such as the
Chinese Triads, the Japanese yakuza, Russian gangsters
and the Mafia, as well as the Cali and Medellin cocaine
cartels in Colombia, and the $5 billion-a-year illegal
trade in wildlife is well established.
Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drugs baron, had a private
zoo at his El Napoles ranch, with giraffes, rhinos and
elephants among 2,000 exotic animals
Craig Van Note, chief executive of Monitor, an
international conservation consortium, said that every
time a drugs camp had been infiltrated, birds, monkeys,
snakes and other animals had been found as well.
"With the drugs gangs so involved in wildlife trade
now, it is becoming impossible to stop. There is so much
corruption out there."
Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drugs baron, had a private
zoo at his El Napoles ranch, with giraffes, rhinos and
elephants among 2,000 exotic animals.
Heroin and cocaine are processed in the same remote parts
of the world - such as the Amazon basin and South-East
Asia's "Golden Triangle" - where many rare
species are found.
It is the link between the legal shipment of wildlife and
the drugs trade which is now worrying Customs
authorities, and stretching the limited resources
allocated for wildlife trade. US Fish and Wildlife
Service agents complain they are under pressure to form
their own "SWAT" team to enforce drugs laws.
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