Organized Crime in Russia - Drug Trafficking

Drug Trafficking

Drug trafficking and illicit drug use is a significant problem in the country. The disintegration of the Soviet Union, the civil war in Afghanistan, the civil war in Tajikistan, and the conflicts in the North Caucasus have made the favorable conditions for the development of illegal drug trade. In the early 1990s, use of cocaine was increasingly noted among the young population of the nation.

In the mid-1990s, the growing drug abuse that appeared in Russia was caused by lack of border controls, and the country became one of the world's major transit corridors of drug trafficking. The entrance of producers of cocaine of South America in the Russian market was proved by intercepting cocaine shipments in Saint Petersburg in 1993. As of 1996 internal production of narcotic substances was also rising in Russia.

Limited quantity of illicit cannabis is cultivated in the country. Opium poppies and marijuana are cultivated illegally in the Southern Federal District. Russia is one of the two major drug producers along with Morocco, and one of the five major drug trafficking entry points along with Iran, Turkey, Italy and Spain in the Mediterranean region. The drug trafficking also involves the supply of opium, heroin and marijuana from Central Asia and the Golden Crescent, comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

Russian drug rings work with the Sicilian mafia and the Colombian drug traffickers to import and distribute cocaine. Many local Russian distributors have connections with criminal organizations in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Ukraine. According to the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, a regular trafficking route exists from Tajikistan to Rostov-on-Don via Turkmenistan, and from there to Western Europe. Below are some drug-trafficking routes through the Russian Federation:

Between 1993 and 1995, the annual amount of seized narcotic substances increased from thirty-five tons to ninety tons. At present approximately 5 million people use illicit drugs in Russia. Russia has the biggest heroin problem along with Iran and Estonia. Russia is a major consumer of opiates.

Several measures have been taken by the government to combat drug trafficking. Russia is a party of the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. In 1994, when Boris Yeltsin was the President of Russia, a committee was founded for coordination of drug policy. In 1995, a three-year counternarcotics program was approved for establishing drug treatment facilities, criminalization of drug abuse, extension of sentences for drug trafficking, and establishment of pharmaceuticals-monitoring process.

In two major anti-drug operations in 1997, fifty metric tons of narcotic substances were seized and approximately 1,400 criminal organizations engaged in drug trafficking were disrupted or destroyed. In March 2003, Russian President Vladimir Putin established the Russian State Committee for Control over the Illegal Trafficking of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances for combating drug trafficking with more coordinated manner.