Illegal drug trade on the Internet booming: UN report
VIENNA, Feb 27 AFP|Published: Wednesday February 27, 11:41 AM
Internet sales of illegal drugs are booming, the United Nations drug board warned today.
Dealers were also using private chat rooms and online pharmacies selling prescription-only drugs on the web, said the president of the UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) Hamid Ghodse.
Releasing INCB's annual report, Ghodse urged governments to fight the spread of drug trafficking via the internet.
"If you see the internet as without having any jurisdiction, it is something which we need to do something about today, for tomorrow, to protect the world community," Ghodse told journalists.
On the internet "you have recipes, for example on how to make illicit drugs, how to avoid police detection, how to protect yourself against law enforcement," Ghodse said.
He has called for greater international cooperation "to prevent the internet from turning into a worldwide web of drug trafficking and crime".
He warned governments against misdirected and haphazard drug control policies.
According to the report, Czech authorities had found that illicit drug sales and purchases could be made online at internet cafes or via mobile phones.
Companies in the Netherlands were using the internet to sell seeds and derivatives throughout the world.
In Britain authorities had found a number of Websites worldwide selling cannabis, heroin, ecstasy and cocaine, the report said.
INCB Secretary Herbert Schaepe cited a licenced online pharmacy based in Thailand, which sold illegal narcotic and psychotropic drugs and also prescription-only drugs which were legal in some countries.
As well as drug trafficking, the internet aided money-laundering as drug traffickers exploited internet banking, the report warned.
In Hong Kong, it has become more difficult to detect the laundering of drug-related funds with the advance of electronic commerce, it said.
A joint Colombian and United States drug investigation found that traffickers had kept in touch by setting up internet chat rooms protected by fire walls to make them impenetrable, the report said.
Drug traffickers also concealed information on shipments of illicit drugs using encrypted messages and laundered drug money by electronic transfer, it said.
The INCB also warned children and young people risk falling victim to drug abuse as the illegal narcotics trade spreads on the Internet.
"The consequences of these developments are alarming. Young people may be drawn into drug-related crime by misinformation, propaganda or brainwashing on the part of unseen individuals whose aim is to profit from a broader drug-abusing population.
"When the approach is 'virtual', the warning signals that might deter a young person in the real world are minimised," the report said.
the full UN report is here:
http://www.incb.org/e/ar/2001/index.htm
i'll probably coment more once i've read the whole thing.
[ 27 February 2002: Message edited by: johnboy ]