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Biggest drug towns and/or nations in Europe.

[h=1]The Role of Heroin in Serbian History
Whether it was transporting silk, spices, tobacco, or opium, for centuries, the Silk Road from the Far East towards European countries passed through Serbia. Read how heroin permeated the country and made the region a transport hub for illicit substances.


How it used to be
During the 1970s, injecting drug users in Belgrade and Serbia used opium originating in the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia. Macedonia and Serbia were at the time part of the same country, Yugoslavia, so opium was transported without much trouble, satisfying 90 percent of the opiate drug market. The remaining 10 percent consisted of heroin reaching Belgrade in small quantities. Belgrade's heroin market grew slowly, since at that time there was no organised supply. Dealers were themselves users, and in many cases they were buying heroin in the Middle East and Asian countries. A smaller part of the market was covered by heroin coming from Kosovo. Albanians from Kosovo, with family connections in the Middle and Far East, were trying to organise their (at that time, rather poorly-developed) network of heroin distribution towards Western Europe. Heroin was transported to Yugoslavia from the Middle and Far East via Turkey and Bulgaria. It was then repackaged in Kosovo, to continue its journey towards Western Europe.

At that time, according to drug users, it was harder to arrange contacts with suppliers in Kosovo, due to ethnic and religious distrust, than with suppliers in the Middle East. Students from countries in the Middle East brought heroin to Belgrade for the first time. The street price at that time was 65 – 80 euro per gram.

In the 1980s, heroin mostly took over from opium. At the beginning of the decade, the first laboratories for synthesising heroin were established in the smaller villages of Kosovo. Due to a lack of secure contacts with the West, Albanians liaised with organised crime groups in Belgrade, who had, by then, formed links with organisations in Europe. Heroin from Kosovo started to become available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. There were rumours about alliances between smugglers and certain policemen, explaining the easy transit of drugs. The Serbian market was primarily supplied by heroin from Kosovo, and to a much lesser extent, from Asia. The price remained at around 50 – 70 euro per gram, depending on quality. The quality of heroin from Kosovo was generally lower and it was much more expensive than the supply from the East; but lower transportation risks allowed it to flood the Serbian market. At that time, heroin was a new drug, seen in the “high society” circles of musicians, artists and children of influential parents.

The effects of the war on the Balkans

At the beginning of the 1990s, Serbia faced war in the region. Although no direct clashes took place on its territory, the consequences were seen everywhere. From 1992 onwards, FR Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) was subject to UN sanctions. Serbia was disconnected from all international organisations and institutions, such as the UN and Interpol. Economic sanctions had a severe impact on the middle and lower classes in Serbia. Inflation reached record highs, factories were closing down, cultural activity was dying... Life became a question of simple survival, with smuggling an everyday reality. Everything was bought on the black market - cigarettes, household goods, petrol, cars, and weapons - but also, drugs. The illegal trade became so much a part of everyday life, that it was even supported by politicians in power, as the money it involved maintained social stability within the economically ravaged country. In these circumstances, it was no surprise that the drug trade was well organised too. By this time, the Serbian sector of the heroin distribution network was fully developed. The most profitable markets were Germany, Italy, and the Scandinavian countries. Via these channels, heroin was even transported to the West Coast of the United States of America.The link became even stronger, due to the fact that during the war, the authorities unofficially supported a number of paramilitary organisations. These generally developed out of organised crime groups – dealers, whose basic source of financing was drug smuggling. Up until 1994, heroin sold for 50 – 60 euros per gram. From 1994, thanks to links with Bulgarian petrol smugglers, a new-old heroin route into Serbia quickly developed. Heroin from Bulgaria, in ever-larger quantities, was reaching Belgrade and Niš and then being distributed to other parts of the country. The law of supply and demand led to a reduction in heroin prices, down to 30–40 euros per gram.

Access to heroin became steadily easier in the years leading up to 1998. Most marijuana dealers started to sell heroin. The street price of heroin continued to decrease, until it reached 10 euros per gram, and it was even sold as single doses, at 1.5 Euro for 100mg. Quality, of course, was lower than at the beginning of the 1990s, but huge accessibility kept it at a reasonable level. The domestic market was directly supplied from Bulgaria (around 45%), and from Kosovo (another 45%), with 10% coming from Montenegro and Novi Pazar (a city on the border of Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo).

Heroin and politics

Heroin-dealing became a popular occupation among young people in Serbia, because of the opportunity for easy earnings, since police protection was easy to buy. The constant flow of heroin, police raids announced in advance, and - in the event of arrest - release arranged by corrupt judges, made the job secure and tempting. In such a climate, the trade network became highly developed all over Serbia.

Heroin could be found almost everywhere, while marijuana was becoming more difficult to get. Young people who had their first contact with drugs were offered heroin without any reluctance. At the same time, there was almost no information available about the risks of drug use. A crisis of moral values led to despair among the young, who had more and more free time, due to the breakdown of the school system. The media, under the control of the authorities, promoted a superficial and problematic lifestyle. The problem of increased drug addiction didn't get any publicity and drug users started to face more stigma and isolation.

After the collapse of the Milosevic regime in 2000, 670 kg of clean heroin were found in a safe at the national bank, recorded as police property. It is assumed that these drugs were seized during police actions in Kosovo in the period 1996-1999. Details were not officially announced. Another scandal revealed a network of judges, across several larger towns in Serbia, who were cooperating with drug smugglers and were very often responsible for the release of criminals because of “a lack of evidence”.Since 2000, new groups have replaced the old ones. In 2004, the Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic, was murdered - the killing organised by a criminal group funded by heroin distribution both within Serbia and on the European market. The connections between this group, and Serbian political structures, have still not been clearly revealed. In 2009, a group organised from inside Serbia was arrested in Uruguay, in possession of 2,170 kg of cocaine. The head of that group, Darko Saric was arrested on the 24th of March 2014 after spending almost five years on the run. Saric, one of the most wanted figures in the crime-riddled Balkan region, faces 13 indictments, including the trafficking of 5.7 tonnes of cocaine from Latin America and the laundering of 22 million euros in Serbia.

Belgrade media have speculated that Saric might reveal during his trial the names of Serbian politicians believed to have helped him with money laundering operations. And while he denies the cocaine trafficking charges, his case may reveal how deeply rooted in the Serbian politics drug-related crime is.

How does the scene look today?

All of this has led to a situation where heroin has become a widely-available, widely-used drug in Serbia. Official data on the number of addicts are not reliable, but official estimates suggest there are around 25,000–30,000 injecting drug users in Serbia, though the trend of heroin injection has been declining in recent years. The price of heroin today is 20 euro per gram, and the Serbian heroin market has become completely independent from drug routes from the Middle East to European countries.

Since heroin first appeared, the market has changed enormously. Today, its use is common and it is available in almost every village of Serbia. Heroin use particularly effects Roma communities.

Due to the country's economic situation, for many people - especially young people - a 1,000 euro “salary” earned by dealing with the drug seems like a dream. For them, the drug business appears a respectable and prosperous market. The 'controversial businessmen with an extravagant life style' image of drug dealers is further strengthened by the local media. Moreover, a recent trend is for the use of adolescents as heroin dealers, since they are below the age of criminal accountability.

NGO services tailored to the needs of injecting drug users are accessible only in four cities, and their sustainability is uncertain due to the Global Fund departure in coming months. The links between crime groups and political structures in Serbia have been evident since the beginning of the 90s, and those links seem to have been growing stronger all the time.

Since the Serbian Strategy to Combat Drugs is based on an expected decline in drug supply, it seems impossible to truly implement the part of the strategy which relates to heroin. It seems that, under the current legal framework, the police can only focus on small scale dealers and users, but that won’t make any significant change to the drug scene or the market, nor make drug users lives easier or safer.
After the collapse of the Milosevic regime in 2000, 670 kg of clean heroin were found in a safe at the national bank, recorded as police property. It is assumed that these drugs were seized during police actions in Kosovo in the period 1996-1999. Details were not officially announced. Another scandal revealed a network of judges, across several larger towns in Serbia, who were cooperating with drug smugglers and were very often responsible for the release of criminals because of “a lack of evidence”.Since 2000, new groups have replaced the old ones. In 2004, the Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic, was murdered - the killing organised by a criminal group funded by heroin distribution both within Serbia and on the European market. The connections between this group, and Serbian political structures, have still not been clearly revealed. In 2009, a group organised from inside Serbia was arrested in Uruguay, in possession of 2,170 kg of cocaine. The head of that group, Darko Saric was arrested on the 24th of March 2014 after spending almost five years on the run. Saric, one of the most wanted figures in the crime-riddled Balkan region, faces 13 indictments, including the trafficking of 5.7 tonnes of cocaine from Latin America and the laundering of 22 million euros in Serbia.

Belgrade media have speculated that Saric might reveal during his trial the names of Serbian politicians believed to have helped him with money laundering operations. And while he denies the cocaine trafficking charges, his case may reveal how deeply rooted in the Serbian politics drug-related crime is.

How does the scene look today?

All of this has led to a situation where heroin has become a widely-available, widely-used drug in Serbia. Official data on the number of addicts are not reliable, but official estimates suggest there are around 25,000–30,000 injecting drug users in Serbia, though the trend of heroin injection has been declining in recent years. The price of heroin today is 20 euro per gram, and the Serbian heroin market has become completely independent from drug routes from the Middle East to European countries.

Since heroin first appeared, the market has changed enormously. Today, its use is common and it is available in almost every village of Serbia. Heroin use particularly effects Roma communities.

Due to the country's economic situation, for many people - especially young people - a 1,000 euro “salary” earned by dealing with the drug seems like a dream. For them, the drug business appears a respectable and prosperous market. The 'controversial businessmen with an extravagant life style' image of drug dealers is further strengthened by the local media. Moreover, a recent trend is for the use of adolescents as heroin dealers, since they are below the age of criminal accountability.

NGO services tailored to the needs of injecting drug users are accessible only in four cities, and their sustainability is uncertain due to the Global Fund departure in coming months. The links between crime groups and political structures in Serbia have been evident since the beginning of the 90s, and those links seem to have been growing stronger all the time.

Since the Serbian Strategy to Combat Drugs is based on an expected decline in drug supply, it seems impossible to truly implement the part of the strategy which relates to heroin. It seems that, under the current legal framework, the police can only focus on small scale dealers and users, but that won’t make any significant change to the drug scene or the market, nor make drug users lives easier or safer.





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It was interesting for me that you can get poppy seeds from a grandma just a little out of Belgrade, weed is also growing in most of ex-Yu countries.
In France I didnt have troubles getting gear, Italy is to close too Albania, Macedonia they have got everything, at one point it was how they were trafficing it from the Balkans.
But I think for stuff like MDMA, speed the north is a better place, there is a reason why these drugs are better and cheaper in Normandy, the north of France then in the south, tho a gram of speed in Serbia, Bosnia is less then 10e, if you buy 2-3 is 5...
 
i wanna go to serbia at 20e a gram - wonder what the purity is like tho?
 
Norway only has a big problem in the main cities... like Oslo, but everywhere else if very nice and drugs are basically unheard of, they don't even have police in alot of areas, they had a massacre a few years ago and it took police like 1 hour 30 mins to arrive, the guy killed 80 people

Im going prague soon.. but my friend has friends who live there.. so i'm sure we will score good drugs :)
 
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There's loads of video of it happening from when the police and news etc arrived, watched a good doc a while back. My mum's friend works in Oslo and she said you could feel the bomb he set off from halfway across the city centre.
 
Argh, that sucks. Speaking of Pakistani's, I saw a docu from Britain that they, along with Indians and Bangladeshi, control a lot of the smack trade in UK. Whereas before, it was a Turkish thing. Do you know if that holds up? I don't know many Pakistanians and have never bought any drugs from them, though a guy I knew at rehab used to score opium from 'em (as his sister was married to a guy of that ethnicity, so he was kinda accepted), and this other guy who ran a local smartshop once also bought opium from a pakistani taxi driver one night. Haha.

Link to the doc?

As far as I was aware it's all still turks at the top level.
 
AS far as Ive witnessed with my own eyes it seems to be scousers (people from liverpool) who control the heroin and crack trade in the UK, something i aint proud of but if you go to any city/town in the uk you will find scousers selling the shite. The police have a nickname 'the travelling scouse' because of the networks established throughout the UK from top level dealers importing then breaking it down till it finally reaches the 17 year old who's travelled to bournemouth to sell the crap. The turks controll the processing from morphine into heroin in italy then generally upto the buyer to get it across to dover.
 
Boscombe has got to be the most smack infested place in the UK.

agreed i was there a couple of years back and scored easiy, tho bumped into a friend who usd to live near me, i wxpected it to be good as south coast and all, but it wasnt as good as what i get locally and a bit more expensive tho i was going thro a third party my old friend
 
Yeah boscombe was murder I spent a summer in quinton house , right on the crescent , we'd sit in group therapy watching people score and then use on the green. Had no fucking chance of staying clean down there.
Most of the dealers were scousers that had left/ been thrown out of treatment and stayed down there.
Plymouth was the same overrun with relapsed scousers all bang at it. lol.
 
you can get whatever where ever in the countries i was in Europe.

in London I found a weed contact on the 2nd day. A lot of street dealers in any big city. they will have good product if they want you to come back.

i did not trust dealers in some places esp The Netherlands, do not ever give or show them money. best to get to know someone first there. Same with Belgium.

France was easy.
 
AS far as Ive witnessed with my own eyes it seems to be scousers (people from liverpool) who control the heroin and crack trade in the UK, something i aint proud of but if you go to any city/town in the uk you will find scousers selling the shite. The police have a nickname 'the travelling scouse' because of the networks established throughout the UK from top level dealers importing then breaking it down till it finally reaches the 17 year old who's travelled to bournemouth to sell the crap. The turks controll the processing from morphine into heroin in italy then generally upto the buyer to get it across to dover.

Heroin comes in thro' all the large ports, felixstow,bristol,liverpool,dover etc. Up untill the drought 90% of it was controlled by the turks who sold it on to yardie firms but that network was just about destroyed by high level busts, the asians are bringing in most of the gear at the moment but in smaller loads (the turks would bring in tonnes at a time the asians much less 50-100kg at the most) morphine base is turned in to heroin in afghanistan not italy ffs -its not like the 70's with scilily and marseille. Crack is /has always been run by local yardie firms
 
Turkish gangs? Around 70% of the trade at best. Not 90%.

But yeah, SOCA and the Turkish authorities carried out a coordinated operation around 2011. Back then, it was estimated that between 18-23 tonnes were imported to the UK per year.

Btw, most Turks are Asian. In fact, most people are Asian. So it may help to be a bit more specific about the 'Asian firms'.
 
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Turkish gangs? Around 70% of the trade at best. Not 90%.

But yeah, SOCA and the Turkish authorities carried out a coordinated operation around 2011. Back then, it was estimated that between 18-23 tonnes were imported to the UK per year.

Btw, most Turks are Asian. In fact, most people are Asian. So it may help to be a bit more specific about the 'Asian firms'.

Turkey in in europe not asia.
ASsian means in terms of smack distribution pakistani,bangladeshi in the main.If you didnt know that you really ought to do a bit of research as you obviously dont know anyone personally who knows this stuff - and reading it from Gov websites isnt the best place to look either.
more like 30 tonnes a year
 
Turkey in in europe not asia.

Sorry?

Do you mean to say that the traffic exclusively came from the parts of Turkey which are in Europe? Or are you claiming that Turkey isn't transcontinental?

ASsian means in terms of smack distribution pakistani,bangladeshi in the main.If you didnt know that you really ought to do a bit of research as you obviously dont know anyone personally who knows this stuff - and reading it from Gov websites isnt the best place to look either.
more like 30 tonnes a year

I'm well aware that 'Asian' is widely used in place of 'Bangladeshi', 'Pakistani' or other more offensive names, but not only is it hideously outdated (Asia is not just the parts of the Indian subcontinent which aren't India, it's much bigger than that) but even in the context of smack distribution it's not reliable shorthand. There are gangs from China, Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere involved in the scene.

As for your little 'you don't know anyone personally' rant, I'm aware that you see yourself as being at the right hand of Mister Big (and it's pretty embarrassing, frankly), but I'm afraid I trust those official figures more than the ones that you're (seemingly) pulling out of your arse.
 
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Only a tiny part of Turkey is in Europe, i belive that Istanbul forms the contintental border. The remaining 80% or w/e is in Asia AFAIK.
 
yep thats why turkey is in the eec - oh and sammy grow up im probably old enough to be your father and yes with age comes knowledge - as you will no doubt find out - i'm beyond your childish rants which BTW you ought to be reprimanded for.....wheres a mod when you need one

oh and one more thing MR Big - actually is a professor of indochinese and subcontinent studies
 
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