POPPY FIELD CONFIRMED IN WESTERN BANGLADESH

C O N F I D E N T I A L DHAKA 002566

SIPDIS

NEW DELHI FOR DEA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2010
TAGS: ECON KCRM SNAR BG
SUBJECT: POPPY FIELD CONFIRMED IN WESTERN BANGLADESH

Classified By: P/E Counselor D.C. McCullough, reason para 1.4(d)


1. (C) On May 30, Director General of the BDG's Department of
Narcotics Control (DNC) Mohammed Kamaluddin Ahmed confirmed
to enconoff reports of opium cultivation in Bangladesh. On
the margins of a meeting between Ahmed and ICITAP TDYer,
econoff raised reports from a local NGO that DNC
investigators had recovered poppies from a remote area
earlier this year and presented them as evidence to the DG in
his office.


2. (C) Ahmed confirmed that investigators found poppy plants,
in western Bangladesh. Subsequent investigation of the area
by border security forces, he said, found a "small" poppy
field of a few acres, which farmers said was for producing
poppy seeds for use as a cooking spice. The security forces
reportedly destroyed the crop. Ahmed stated that he has
ordered patrols to be more vigilant, and that they have not
found any more fields. The DG affirmed there is no evidence
of poppy cultivation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region.


3. (C) Comment: The NGO that provided the reports to econoff
is APON, which operates a 12-step recovery program for drug
addicts. APON Director Brother Ron Drahozal has long
maintained that poppies are cultivated in the Chittagong Hill
Tracts, but DNC officials in Dhaka had previously downplayed
such reports as unconfirmed.

CHAMMAS