29 October 1999
(Welcomes EU cooperation for Andean alternative economic development) (4,460) Barry R. McCaffrey, director of the U.S. office of national drug control policy, says there has been excellent cooperation between the United States and Europe in various anti-drug efforts, including law enforcement, intelligence sharing, and interdiction, and there is now growing cooperation in other areas, particularly alternative economic development for people involved in the drug trade. Speaking at a press briefing in Brussels October 27 following talks with European Union officials, McCaffrey said EU economic development support for Andean countries and the Caribbean "is the right thing to do. . . It is making a difference, and it is serving the self-interest of the European Union as well." Joining him were three South American ambassadors to the EU: Roberto Arenas Bonilla of Colombia, Jos Antonio Arrospide-del Busto of Peru, and Arturo Liebers Baldivieso of Bolivia. McCaffrey spoke mostly about the cocaine trade. He said casual cocaine use in the United States has dropped about 70 percent in the past ten years, causing dealers to look for new markets from Russia to Malaysia, with a huge amount of the drug entering Europe. While cocaine seizures in Europe increased dramatically in the last year, he said, as much as 130 metric tons was still available for consumption. "And that's the challenge," he said. Ambassador Liebers Baldivieso of Bolivia said it is very important for his country to have the support and cooperation of the United States and the EU, and he briefly discussed the Dignity Plan, "an integral program which deals with alternative development, illegal coca production, eradication, prevention and rehabilitation, and finally interdiction." Ambassador Arrospide-del Busto of Peru said the problem of illegal drugs is so global and so important "that it should be approached in a political way that will create a cooperation scheme that will work in both areas," meaning in both producing and consuming countries. He said that is why the problem should be tackled in what he called the "Transatlantic Dialogue" between the European Union and the United States. Ambassador Arenas Bonilla of Colombia said all countries involved "in one or another way" in the business of illegal drugs should help find solutions to the many aspects of the problem, including production, processing, distribution, consumption, money laundering, and arms dealing. McCaffrey was in Europe October 24-29 to outline U.S. drug control policy, to discuss the importance of international support for anti-drug initiatives, and to develop a consensus against the use of illegal drugs in the Olympics and other sports competitions. He had scheduled stops in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Portugal, and France. Following is a transcript of the briefing in Brussels: (begin transcript) U.S. Mission to the EU Brussels, Belgium Press Briefing October 27, 1999 BARRY R. MCCAFFREY, DIRECTOR, U.S. OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY ROBERTO ARENAS BONILLA, AMBASSADOR OF COLOMBIA TO THE EUROPEAN UNION JOS ANTONIO ARROSPIDE-DEL BUSTO, AMBASSADOR OF PERU TO THE EUROPEAN UNION ARTURO LIEBERS BALDIVIESO, AMBASSADOR OF BOLIVIA TO THE EUROPEAN UNION DIRECTOR MCCAFFREY: We just had an opportunity, the four of us from the Americas, to have a very good session with representatives of the EC, those from the foreign policy arena, from development, from justice, and to talk about the challenge of global cooperation on the drug issue. Classically, there has been excellent transatlantic cooperation on law enforcement, on intelligence sharing, on interdiction, particularly in places like the Caribbean. There is an enormous success between British, Dutch, French, U.S., other Caribbean partners, on airborne and sea interdiction, and all this works quite well. In addition, there has been a growing -- and we wanted to underscore a growing -- successful cooperation by the EU in other forms of support, particularly in the areas of alternative economic development, and in development of institutions, training, training of law enforcement, training of judicial systems, but particularly alternative economic development. I think part of our purpose today is to make a very strong argument that, not only is this enhanced support -- which has been brought to bear particularly in both Bolivia and Peru -- appreciated, but that it serves the interest of the European Union. And that is really my central statement. Let me explain why I wanted to underscore the reason why this is a matter of self-interest in the European Union. I would suggest the worst thing that happened in the United States since 1945 was cocaine, during the decade of the eighties. That drug initially was widely believed, in the United States, to be less dangerous than alcohol. And it was believed to be a non-addictive drug -- physiologically non-addictive -- which I might add is true. It is physiologically non-addictive. We encountered a growing drug consumption problem during the eighties in the United States that resulted in 3.6 million Americans being chronically addicted to cocaine. Since those days, in a very short period of time, ten years, cocaine consumption in the United States, the casual use of cocaine has decreased by seventy percent. It is incredible. You can see it in our crime statistics: drug related murders are down; the amount of money we spend on drugs is down; the total number of Americans using any kind of drugs is down by fifty percent from 1979. But we remain with a total of 4.1 million Americans chronically addicted -- a small percentage of the population, but huge damage to our society. Fifty-two thousand dead a year, a hundred and ten billion dollars a year in damages. And the principal drug threat was cocaine. And we didn't understand that this was a dangerous product. These numbers are soft but let me suggest some numbers. Today, perhaps, there are seven hundred metric tons of cocaine produced and the United States consumes probably two hundred eighty metric tons. Those drugs are now looking for new markets, and so we see a dramatic increase in cocaine addiction throughout the Americas. We see it happening in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil and throughout the Americas, in Panama City, in Jamaica. The drugs are also showing up in Moscow, and in Malaysia. A huge amount of these drugs is now coming to Europe. The number I would suggest is somewhere between eighty and a hundred and thirty metric tons of cocaine which came to Europe last year. There was superb work by EU nation law enforcement authorities. In particular the Dutch and the Spanish have done excellent work. The seizures of cocaine have increased every year for six years. The seizures have increased dramatically in the last year. But having said that, probably eighty to a hundred and thirty metric tons of cocaine were available for consumption inside Europe, after the seizures are discounted. And that's the challenge. Tomorrow, I have the privilege of going to the second annual meeting of the European Drug Monitoring Center in Lisbon, the second annual meeting between the EU and the United States on drug matters. We will continue to discuss drug prevention, drug treatment, and the sharing of scientific studies. But the message will also be one of inviting the European Union to study the experience of the United States during the eighties and to not repeat our disastrous mistake. And then finally, I will strongly suggest, and I am really honored to be joined by my colleagues from the Americas, that this European Union economic development support for the Andean Ridge, for the Caribbean, is the right thing to do. It is making a difference, and it is serving the self-interest of the European Union as well. That is really the central part of the message and let me, if I may, offer my three colleagues, an opportunity, should they choose to do so, to make their own comments. AMBASSADOR ARTURO LIEBERS BALDIVIESO, BOLIVIA: We received the kind invitation of the Director, General McCaffrey, to have a meeting today, and as you know we had a meeting with the EU members, the Commission, and it is a pleasure to have this meeting. As you know, Bolivia is involved in the drug problem, from maybe twenty years ago, but the coca production as a leaf is a tradition of habitat in our countries from more than one thousand years ago. But we have to underline the importance of these meetings, because the control of the narco-traffic is a common problem. It is a shared responsibility. Let me say that during our last meeting, between the European Union and Latin American countries, we called to the international community to support, to carry on, a long term program in order to finish with these problems. We call for a 'world alliance'. Therefore for us, for Bolivians, it is very important to have the comprehension [sic] of the United States, but also it is very, very important to have the support, the cooperation of the European Union. As you know, we have a master plan and our goal is to finish, to cut the circuit, coca-cocaine by the year 2002. This is a very hard program and I will give you an example of this (printed) plan, called 'Dignity Plan', which is an integral program which deals with alternative development, illegal coca production, eradication, prevention and rehabilitation, and finally interdiction. We are making our support. In two years we diminished probably fifty percent of the total coca production, illegal coca production. But we have to say that the cooperation is not enough. We have a shared responsibility and therefore in this meeting, we called the European Union, we called also the United States, to carry on together this long term program and also to extend, to enlarge, their cooperation to Bolivia and also of course to the other Andean countries. I have to conclude this first participation, saying thank you very much to Mr. McCaffrey, but especially thank you very much to the European Union, because Brussels is the heart of the European Union, and we are the Ambassadors to the European Union. Also let me tell you that, with the European Commission, we have two programs in Bolivia dealing with alternative development in the Chapare, where we have the illegal production of coca leaves, and also in the highlands of Bolivia, in order to control the immigration of the rural people to the tropical areas, where we have the conditions to produce the coca leaves. AMBASSADOR JOS ANTONIO ARROSPIDE-DEL BUSTO, PERU: Just a very few words. First of all, thank you very much for being here. As General McCaffrey has clearly said, drugs is a global problem, it affects all of us, not just one portion of the world. We are all involved in that. In every single part of this problem, we have all made enormous efforts to control it. In the case of my country, which is Peru, as you perhaps may know, Peru was the first, the world's first producer of coca leaves. Nowadays it is not anymore. We have eliminated half of the coca leaf production. But of course, there remains another half. In that particular area, that is a social problem for us. We have to create something for these peasants, something profitable for them, in order to dedicate themselves to it and not to the drug production. So, we have been tackling that problem. For this we have been having the cooperation of the United States, of course. And with the European Union, we have an important program in a specific area of the country. And we have been receiving a very important cooperation from the States as well. We also have the interdiction problem, in which we have been receiving very, very important cooperation from the United States that we hope will get even bigger. And we also hope that the European Union will join this type of cooperation, as well. We believe that in what is called the Transatlantic Dialogue between the European Union and the United States, drug problems should be tackled. The problem, so global, so important, it affects so much the populations of Europe and the populations of the United States, that it should be approached in a political way that will create a cooperation scheme that will work in both areas. When I say "both areas", I mean the consumption world and the producing world. I strongly believe that the presence of General McCaffrey in Brussels, yesterday and today, is helping a lot to create this new approach of cooperation and coordination between the United States and the European Union and the Andean countries. I suppose that working together is the only way we will resolve our problem that affects every one of our societies. Drug does not only affect my country, Peruvian society. It affects very much the American society and the European society. So, just a joint effort, of the three of us, will lead us to a solution. Thank you. AMBASSADOR ROBERTO ARENAS BONILLA, COLOMBIA: Well, General McCaffrey, thank you for the invitation, for participating in this meetings. What could I say? As you just mentioned, this is a global problem, a concern for the whole of the world. But in case of Columbia, I could say that there is not any country in the world that has suffered all that we have suffered as the consequence of this business. Because it is a business, the drug. You very well know all the people who have died as a consequence of the violence. At the present moment, the drug money finance the groups that create violence in Columbia. Also, it has been the main cause of the corruption that is extended in most of the national activities. Columbia, three or four decades ago, was proud to have one of the most transparent public administrations. Our economic powers that generate this type of business is the main cause of the deterioration in my country. But I feel very happy to have the presence today of General McCaffrey. Why? Because yesterday my President made his presentation to the Parliament of the European Union, in Strasbourg, presenting the position of my country in terms of the efforts we are making in order to get peace. And the peace is connected with the drug, because unless we are able to finish that business, it is impossible for us to guarantee the peace process. But how to finish with that problem? It has to be an effort of all the countries involved in one or another way in this business. Because the problem is not the production alone, the problem is the elaboration of the drug. In order to elaborate the drug, you require certain goods that are produced in the industrial countries and are sent through international organizations that benefit, economically speaking. The arms that are coming to Columbia for us to kill each other also come from industrial countries that produce them and certain organizations inside these countries as well, to deliver the arms to my country. And what happens to what you could call "the laundering of the trafico"? The money that is produced is one of the largest businesses in the world today. In Columbia there remains just a percentage of that money to pay, not only the people who are dedicated to the cultivation of this cocaine, but for the Mafias that organize the production as well as the distribution of the drug to the countries where the consumption is high. It is certainly necessary that all the countries take conscience of this big problem. And this is a problem, believe it or not, that if you don't do something quickly, you will suffer the consequences that we are having in my country, and the consequences that the United States - maybe you start suffering also - the consequences of habit of consumption of this type of drug. So, it is very important, I repeat, that today the United States, represented by General McCaffrey, invite the European Union not only to take conscience of that, but to coordinate with them and with us, what has to be done simultaneously in all our countries in order to finish with this drug problem. DIRECTOR MCCAFFREY: Thank you, Mr. Ambassador. We would be glad to respond to your own questions. Let me, if I may, underscore the very important event, for the eight hundred million of us in the Americas, that occurred on 4 October. That is the day in Montevideo, Uruguay, that the thirty-four democratic nations of North, Central and South America, and Caribbean signed what we call the MEM, Memorandum of Evaluation. And this committed us to long-term multi-national cooperation, not just on intelligence sharing and interdiction but also on demand reduction, prevention, treatment, law enforcement, money laundering, precursor chemical control, arms control. And we agreed that each year we would develop means to evaluate the practicality of this cooperation. When we return from this trip, on 3 to 5 November, we will have the first follow-on meeting of all of us to continue to develop mechanism of cooperation. So all thirty-four nations will meet in Washington, 3-5 November. Our purpose is, at the next Summit of the Americas, in Canada, in 2001, to demonstrate to our heads of government that this cooperation better serves our interest, than confrontation. By the way, the impetus for all this was the Summit of the Americas in Santiago, two years ago. So we have tried to restructure this debate, and see that the challenge as being one that is not just the eradication of coca and opium, but also alternative economic development in a broader array. I think we are moving in the right direction and we're inviting the EU to continue their superb cooperation in this effort. I will be glad to respond to any of your interests. Q: You said eighty to one hundred thirty tons of cocaine entered Europe last year, after seizures. DIRECTOR MCCAFFREY: The flow to Europe, we think, was between one hundred twenty and one hundred eighty metric tons, and the Europeans seized somewhere between forty and fifty metric tons. Q: And this came from where? DIRECTOR MCCAFFREY: It all came out of three countries. The three represented here. Much of it flows out through other nations. We will give you a package. What I have developed is a threat assessment of drugs to Europe and it shows were we think the cocaine is entering Europe. Q: What I don't understand is how you can pinpoint how much drugs entered Europe after seizures? What was the source of your information? DIRECTOR MCCAFFREY: I'll offer each of you a copy of this, and I've taken our intelligence evaluation of this situation and unclassified it. We have been working for the last four years to take our intelligence system, which is no longer looking for the Soviets, and have it look at new threats to security, one of which is drugs. We have tried to do a detailed evaluation of who produces opium, coca and methamphetamines, where are the laboratories, how is it moved, how does the money laundering system work. Some of the data is extremely good, some is less good. If you're growing it outside, we're taking satellite pictures of it. We see where the coca and the opium are grown. We go with the cooperation of Peruvians and Bolivians, we go and we do crop assessments. That data is extremely good. We're doing much better at seeing the movement of these drugs. Trying to stop them is quite a challenge. They are in ships, they are in planes, they are in non-commercial maritime traffic. They are going through Dominican Republic, Haiti, Aruba, Curacao. They are going from Columbia down through Brazil and out to Europe. They are going from Bolivia into Buenos Aires and out to Germany. Fifty-seven percent of it, we say, is going to Spain and another large amount to the Netherlands, as the two principal entry points of cocaine into Europe. We are trying to follow this as closely as we can and we're cooperating of course with Interpol, Europol and other national law enforcement authorities. Q: Does your intelligence show any change in the flow of drugs into Western Europe during the war in Kosovo? DIRECTOR MCCAFFREY: Of course, the cocaine is unaffected by any of this. What is affecting the cocaine market is the decreasing numbers of U.S. citizens using cocaine. What is also affecting this market, I might add, is the dramatic success that Peru has had in reducing coca cultivation, and now Bolivia. So, increasingly, we have a problem of a huge drug production capability that is trying to establish a new marketplace. Q: What I was getting at was reports that Central and Eastern Europe are active in the drug trade now. DIRECTOR MCCAFFREY: Probably not cocaine, but there is nothing you could tell that I wouldn't believe. If you told me that someone had a hot air balloon that came out of Algeria over Paris, I would believe it, but the principal source of drug smuggling of cocaine into Europe is Spain and the Netherlands. But it is also going into Moscow, it is also going, you name it. So, it is all over Europe. It is available and it is not believed to be a dangerous drug. It's believed to be a recreational drug. Now heroin is a different question. Heroin, in Europe, is primarily coming out of Afghanistan and also other places, clearly Turkey, other places. Most of the world's heroin is out of Afghanistan and Burma. That is ninety percent of the world's production of heroin. It is going into Europe in a variety of ways to include through Russia, to include through Albania, through Turkey, through Nigeria by air up into Europe. So, heroin is a different distribution pattern. But as I remind the United States, Europe is also a drug producing region. The United States is a drug producing nation. We're manufacturing now significant amounts of methamphetamines, the worst drug that ever happened in America. And Europe is manufacturing. The Netherlands manufactures half of the Ecstasy produced in Europe -- another drug that is widely believed to be recreational, not dangerous. "Don't drink alcohol, drink plenty of water, you'll be okay." We have just finished our first scientific studies on Ecstasy use. The science seems to assert that low dosage exposure to Ecstasy for a year produces significant long term brain function impairment. Or, a single heavy dosage exposure to Ecstasy. We think the brain reestablishes its capability but it may kill fifty percent of the nerve cells that are involved in the dopamine uptake function. One year of low dosage rate exposure. So, we're telling our own children, particularly in the eastern part of the United States -- and we're sharing with the European Drug Monitoring Center in Lisbon -- this drug is dangerous. We have to tell health authorities, educators, people who work with young people, this drug is not safe, it is dangerous. But a lot of that is produced right here in Europe. Q: A week ago, the European Union leaders met in Tampere and came up with a statement on fighting crime. Did your visit to the EU, did it have anything to do with that? Are there specific ways, in that program that the EU has announced, that you can cooperate? DIRECTOR MCCAFFREY: That is one of the reasons I wanted to come to the EU today. We think it is important for there to be a Transatlantic Dialogue that is broader than police cooperation, intelligence cooperation, military interdiction. And for a year and a half, we've been trying to establish that dialogue. There need [sic] to be a dialogue on doping in sports. So, tomorrow, that will be one of the agenda items for the fifteen nations of the EU and the United States to talk about in Lisbon. We're all involved in the Olympic movement. We're all involved in international competition. We've got to create conditions where chemical engineering of the human body is not a prerequisite to successful competition. I think the French have been very adamant about it, the Germans, the British, the Norwegians, the Australians, the Americans. We are all saying, "What do we do? How do we establish good science? How do we establish drug testing?" So, I have to talk this afternoon to the EC Commissioner who deals with sports. That is a legitimate area of international consultation. So, yes, I think there are new areas in which there needs to be a different sense on how twenty-first century challenges influence multinational organizations. Q: We see the increasing traffic of cocaine to Europe. We see also the increasing relation between the criminal organizations from Europe and Latin America. On July 7, in Spain, the national police seized ten tons of cocaine, and captured fifty-three people from Colombia, Russia, Spain, Italy and Mexico. Can you tell us what kind of relation there is between the European mafias, from Italy and Russia, with the drug cartels from Columbia and Mexico? Also, if you have information about the participation of the Mexican drug cartel in Europe? DIRECTOR MCCAFFREY: Well, there is a good amount of information available and we will get your name and try and provide you with it. The quick answer is, there are no longer national criminal organizations. There are international criminal organizations. And these criminal organizations, although I am here talking about drugs, these same organizations are involved in arms smuggling, in many cases in money laundering, in many cases in the smuggling of human beings -- the most precious of all commodities. They are involved in smuggling cigarettes. They're criminal organizations who are taking enormous amounts of wealth out of Western Europe and North America. They can sell the drugs to poor nations. The drug abuse rates in the developing countries is going up faster than in the developed nations, but the criminal organizations operate everywhere. They are Nigerian. Some of the most dangerous criminal organizations we deal with are Nigerians and former KBG Russians. They are all over the United States, all over the Caribbean, they are in Columbia. They are smuggling arms, they are smuggling cocaine, they are laundering money. They are stealing everything they can out of Russia and selling it all over Western Europe and the United States. I think that it is almost the case that there are no longer national criminal organizations. There is the presence of the Americas in Europe now. You'll find Nigerians up in Laos, being arrested in Thailand. Thank you very much. (end transcript) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State)