Cocaine Supply To Moscow Black Market On The Rise - Police

CEP20061205950451 Moscow ITAR-TASS in English 1924 GMT 05 Dec 06

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MOSCOW, December 5 (Itar-Tass) -- The supply of cocaine to the Moscow black market is growing amid the growth in synthetic drugs, Sergei Tikhonenko from the Russian Interior Ministry's investigation bureau said on Tuesday.

"The drug situation in Moscow is characteristic of megalopolises. Rather high living standards and the developed transport system are add-on factors," he said.

The Moscow black market is offering opium, heroin, cannabis and amphetamines, including ecstasy, Tikhonenko said. "A large amount of narcotic pills are confiscated in the city," he said.

Cocaine has recently become available in Moscow. It sells at approximately $110-120 per gram.

Some 90-95% of drugs sold in Moscow are imported. Moscow and the suburbs also top the list of seized drug shipments (300 this year), he said. They are followed by the Murmansk, Irkutsk and Leningrad regions, the Krasnoyarsk and Krasnodar territories, and St. Petersburg.

About 100,000 drug-related crimes are annually exposed in Russia, and 60% of the crimes are committed by organized groups, head of the Russian Interior Ministry's Department for the Suppression of Organized Crime and Terrorism Stanislav Orlov added.

"This year alone we have exposed 66,000 serious drug-related crimes and over 550 cases of drug contraband, and solved over 2,300 crimes perpetrated by groups of drug dealers," Orlov said.

Drug dealers are increasingly using the Internet to sell and advertise drugs, he said.

"We can see narcotic drugs being advertised on the Internet. The dealers are posting original formulas of synthetic drugs and concluding drug deals," he said. Drug dealers are also using the Internet to watch the progress of large shipments and to sell small batches of narcotics.

"A number of drug dealers have been paid for precursor chemicals and narcotics with e-money," Orlov said. Drug money has also been sent through the international system of monetary transfers. "These circumstances complicate the exposure of illegal drug deals," he said.

The prevention of drug crimes on the Internet is a special concern, Orlov said. "A special department of the Interior Ministry is searching the Internet for drug-related websites and referring the information to specific police units," he said.


[Description of Source: Moscow ITAR-TASS in English -- main government information agency]