Russia's illegal drug trade now worth US$15b

MOSCOW - Russia's illegal drugs trade has topped US$15 billion ($22 billion) a year as criminal groups flood the country with heroin from Afghanistan, according to the national drugs control agency.

Drug use has soared since the fall of the Soviet Union, with Russians becoming major consumers of illegal drugs trafficked by well-organised gangs, including synthetic drugs from Europe as well as heroin from Afghanistan.

"In Russia the narcotics business is estimated to be worth US$15 billion a year: some say more, some say less, but it is actually likely to be bigger," Vladimir Zubrin, deputy director of the Federal Drugs Control Service, said.

The estimate, one of the highest yet from a Russian drugs official, means the illicit drug trade is probably bigger than the profit made by the country's biggest company, Gazprom, whose 9-month profit was about US$8 billion.

Criminal groups launder the drug money through banks and financial instruments and then invest in a variety of assets at home and abroad, Zubrin said.

Opium from the poppy fields of Afghanistan is refined into heroin and then smuggled through Central Asia to Russia, using the "northern route" through Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

"The biggest problem for us is the heroin coming from Afghanistan to Russia," Zubrin said.

"Last year there was another good harvest of opium in Afghanistan ... and a significant part of that heroin came to Russia via the northern route."

He said the heroin flows had increased since Russian troops last year stopped patrolling the 1,340km border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, which asked Russia in 2004 to pull out its troops.

Russia started patrolling the border more than 100 years ago when Tajikistan was a colony of the Russian empire, and continued doing so after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Russia's drug agency will also open an office in Kabul this year, Zubrin said.

Widespread intravenous drug use in Russia has helped the spread of illnesses like HIV/Aids and boosted crime rates, according to drug officials.

The number of drug-related deaths is rising, with about 100,000 deaths from drugs last year, up from 70,000 the year before, he said.

"This is a scary figure," he said. "Over recent years the number of deaths from overdoses has sharply increased."

Russia probably has 5-6 million drug users out of a population of 143.5 million, he said, though the figure could be larger.

In Afghanistan, one kg of raw opium could fetch US$180 last year, while one kg of heroin costs about US$60,000 on the streets of Moscow. Last year, the drugs agency seized about 1,600 tonnes of heroin, he said.

- REUTERS