INSCR ITALY: 2007-2008 INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ROME 002283

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR IT
SUBJECT: INSCR ITALY: 2007-2008 INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS
CONTROL AND STRATEGY REPORT PART I, DRUGS AND CHEMICAL
CONTROL

REF: SECSTATE 136780


I. Summary

The Government of Italy (GOI) is firmly committed to the
fight against drug trafficking domestically and
internationally. The Prodi government continues Italy's
strong counternarcotics stand with capable Italian law
enforcement agencies. Italy is a consumer country and a
major transit point for heroin transiting from the Middle
East and southwest Asia through the Balkans and for cocaine
originating from South America en route to western/central
Europe. Italian and Italy-based foreign organized crime
groups are heavily involved in international drug
trafficking. GOI cooperation with U.S. law enforcement
agencies continues to be exemplary. Italy is a party to the
1988 UN Drug Convention.

II. Status of Country

Italy is mainly a narcotics transit and consumption country.
Law enforcement officials focus their efforts on heroin,
cocaine, and hashish. Although Italy produces some precursor
chemicals, they are well controlled in accordance with
international norms, and are not known to have been diverted
to any significant extent. Law enforcement agencies with a
counternarcotics mandate are effective.

III. Country Actions Against Drugs in 2007

Policy Initiatives. Italy continues to combat narcotics
aggressively and effectively. In March 2006, Italy adopted a
tougher new drug law that eliminates distinctions between
hard and soft drugs, increases penalties for those convicted
of trafficking, and establishes administrative penalties for
lesser offenses. All forms of possession and trafficking are
illegal but punishment depends on the severity of the
infraction. Stiff penalties for those convicted of
trafficking or possessing drugs include jail sentences from
six to 20 years and fines of over $300,000. The law provides
alternatives to jail time for minor infractions, including
drug therapy, community service hours, and house arrest.
Some center-left political parties vowed to overturn the
legislation once elected to office in May 2006, but the Prodi
government--a center-left coalition of eight parties--has not
done so. Minister of Health Livia Turco issued a decree in
April 2007 that allows medicines derived from Cannabis to be
used in drug therapies to relieve severe and chronic pain and
Minister of Social Solidarity Ferrero, who is designated as
the GOI's overall drug coordinator, has publicly campaigned
for new guidelines that raise the minimum amount of narcotics
possession allowed, before punitive measures can be applied.
Any proposal to change existing law would require
consultation with other ministers (including the Justice and
Interior Ministers),approval by the full cabinet, and a vote
in parliament. In late October 2007, the lower house of the
Italian parliament began to review the government's proposal
to amend the law.

In March 2007, at a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
meeting, the GOI proposed a pilot program for opium buyout in
Afghanistan, where Italy maintains a significant military
contingent, as part of ISAF, of approximately 2,300 soldiers.

Also at the multilateral level, Italy has contributed an
average of $12 million to UNODC, over the last several years,
making it one of the largest donors to the UNODC budget.
Italy has supported key U.S. objectives at the UN commission
on narcotic drugs, and chairs the Dublin Group for Central
Asia.

Law Enforcement Efforts. From January 1 to September 30,
2007, Italian authorities seized 1,516.9 kilograms of heroin;
2,981.1 kilograms of cocaine; 14,080.5 kilograms of hashish;
2,835.9 kilograms of marijuana; 1,515,147 marijuana plants;
305,195 doses and 5.8 kilograms of amphetamines; and 3,510
doses of LSD.

In November 2006, a multilateral investigation involving DEA
Rome, the Italian National Police (INP),the Italian Guardia
di Finanza (GdF),as well as Colombian and Spanish
authorities, successfully dismantled a major international
cocaine trafficking and money laundering organization
operating in South America and Europe. INP and GdF personnel
arrested 34 members of this organization, significantly
impacting the drug trafficking and money laundering
activities of several Italian organized crime groups.

In December 2006, a joint investigation between DEA Rome and

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the Italian Carabinieri, as well as law enforcement
counterparts in France, Spain, German, Ecuador, and Colombia,
culminated in the arrest of 90 members of a significant
international drug trafficking organization responsible for
multi-hundred kilogram cocaine shipments from South America
to Italy. During the investigation, over 1,200 kilograms of
cocaine, 4,800 kilograms of hashish and weapons were seized
in Italy and other countries. The Carabinieri arrested 50
individuals in Italy and seized in excess of $25 million in
trafficker-owned assets.

In January 2007, GdF officials in Trieste, Italy seized 110
kilograms of heroin (valued at $70 million) from a truck,
which had arrived on a ferry boat from Turkey. In May 2007,
a joint DEA Milan and GdF money laundering investigation
resulted in the identification and seizure of over $6.2
million in drug proceeds from bank accounts in the U.S.

The fight against drugs is a major priority of the National
Police, Carabinieri, and GdF counternarcotics units. The
Italian Central Directorate for Anti-Drug Services (DCSA)
coordinates the counternarcotics units of the three national
police services and directs liaison activities with DEA and
other foreign law enforcement agencies. Working with the
liaison offices of the U.S. and western European countries,
DCSA has 19 drug liaison officers in 18 countries (including
the U.S.) that focus on major traffickers and their
organizations. In 2006, DCSA stationed liaison officers in
Tehran, Iran and Tashkent, Uzbekistan; in 2007 they added
liaison officers in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Islamabad,
Pakistan.

Investigations of international narcotics organizations often
overlap with the investigations of Italy's traditional
organized crime groups (e.g. the Sicilian Mafia, the
Calabrian N'drangheta, the Naples-based Camorra, and the
Puglia-based Sacra Corona Unita). During a two-year
investigation leading to a major drug bust in early 2005,
Italian officials confirmed that a number of these organized
crime groups were linked to drug trafficking.

Additional narcotics trafficking groups include West African,
Albanian, and other Balkan organized crime groups responsible
for smuggling heroin into Italy; Colombian, Dominican, and
other South American trafficking groups are involved in the
importation of cocaine. Italian law enforcement officials
employ the same narcotics investigation techniques used by
other western countries. Adequate financial resources, money
laundering laws, and asset seizure/forfeiture laws help
ensure the effectiveness of these efforts.

Corruption. As a matter of government policy, Italy does not
encourage or facilitate the illicit distribution of narcotics
or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions.
We have no information that any senior official of the
Government of Italy engages in, encourages, or facilitates
the illicit production or distribution of such drugs or
substances, or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug
transactions. Corruption exists in Italy although in the
area of counternarcotics it rarely rises to the national
level and it does not compromise investigations. When a
corrupt law enforcement officer is discovered, authorities
take appropriate action.

Agreements and Treaties. Italy is a party to the 1961 UN
Single Convention as amended by its 1972 Protocol, as well as
the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the
1988 UN Drug Convention. Italy has signed, but has not yet
ratified the UN Corruption Convention. In August 2006, Italy
ratified the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized
Crime and its three protocols. Italy has bilateral
extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties with the
U.S. In May 2006, the U.S. and Italy signed bilateral
instruments on extradition and mutual legal assistance to
implement the U.S.-EU Agreements on Extradition and Mutual
Legal Assistance signed in 2003.

Cultivation Production. There is no known large-scale
cultivation of narcotic plants in Italy, although small-scale
marijuana production in remote areas does exist, although
mainly for domestic consumption. No heroin laboratories or
processing sites have been discovered in Italy since 1992.
However, opium poppy grows naturally in the southern part of
Italy, including Sicily. It is not commercially viable due
to the low alkaloid content. No MDMA-Ecstasy laboratories
have been found in Italy.

Drug Flow/Transit. Italy is a consumer country and a major
transit point for heroin coming from southwest Asia through

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the Balkans enroute to western and central Europe. A large
percentage of all heroin seized in Italy comes via Albania.
Albanian heroin traffickers work with Italian criminal
organizations as transporters and suppliers of drugs. Heroin
is smuggled into Italy via automobiles, ferryboats and
commercial cargo. Albania is also a source country for
marijuana and hashish destined for Italy. Italy maintains a
liaison office in Albania to assist Albanians in interdicting
narcotics originating there and destined for either Italy or
other parts of Europe.

Almost all cocaine found in Italy originates with Colombian
and other South American criminal groups and is managed in
Italy mainly by Calabrian-based organized crime groups.
Multi-hundred kilogram shipments enter Italy via seaports
concealed in commercial cargo. Although the traditional
Atlantic trafficking route is still in use, stepped-up
international scrutiny and cooperation are forcing
traffickers to use alternative avenues. Italian officials
have detected traffickers using transit ports in West Africa
where drugs are off-loaded to smaller fishing vessels that
ultimately reach Spain and other Mediterranean destinations.
Cocaine shipments off-loaded in Spain and the Netherlands are
eventually transported to Italy and other European countries
by means of land vehicles. Smaller amounts of cocaine
consisting of grams to multi-kilogram (usually concealed in
luggage) enter Italy via express parcels or airline couriers
traveling from South America.

Ecstasy found in Italy primarily originates in the
Netherlands and is usually smuggled into the country by means
of couriers utilizing commercial airlines, trains or land
vehicles. Italy is also used as a transit point for couriers
smuggling Ecstasy destined for the United States. A method
used in the past by trafficking groups has been to provide
thousands of Ecstasy tablets to couriers in Amsterdam
concealed in luggage. The couriers then travel by train or
airline to Italy; the EU's open borders make this journey
somewhat less risky.

Hashish comes predominately from Morocco through Spain,
entering the Iberian Peninsula (and the rest of Europe) via
sea access points using fast boats. As with cocaine, larger
hashish shipments are smuggled into Spain and eventually
transported to Italy by vehicle. Hashish also is smuggled
into Italy on fishing and pleasure boats from Lebanon.

Catha Edulus (aka Khat) is a shrub grown in the southern part
of Arabia and Eastern Africa, primarily in the countries of
Yemen, Somalia, and Ethiopia. The leaves of this plant
contain the alkaloids cathine and cathinone (chewed for
stimulant effects),which are controlled substances in Italy
and the U.S. Italy is one of several European countries used
by East African trafficking organizations for the
transshipment of khat to major urban areas across the U.S.
These organizations primarily use international parcel
delivery systems and airline passenger luggage to transport
multi-kilogram to multi-hundred kilogram quantities of khat.
Italian law enforcement officials continue to cooperate with
DEA in joint investigations targeting these groups in Italy
and the U.S.

Domestic Programs/Demand Reduction. The GOI promotes drug
prevention programs using abstinence messages and treatment
aimed at the full rehabilitation of drug addicts. The
Italian Ministry of Health funds 544 public health offices
operated at the regional level; the Ministry of Interior
supports 730 residential, 204 semi-residential facilities,
and 183 ambulatories. Of the 500,000 estimated drug addicts
in Italy, 176,000 receive services at public agencies.
Others either are not receiving treatment or arrange for
treatment privately. The Prodi government continues to
promote more responsible use of methadone at the public
treatment facilities. For 2005, the Italian government
budgeted $141 million for counternarcotics programs run by
the health, education, and labor ministries. Seventy-five
percent of this amount is for regional programs and the
remaining 25 percent is for national programs.

IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs

Bilateral Cooperation. The U.S. and Italy continue to enjoy
exemplary counternarcotics cooperation. In January 2006, the
Director of the Italian Central Directorate for Anti-Drug
Services (DCSA) met with senior DEA leadership at DEA
headquarters in Washington, DC in furtherance of bilateral
operations. In January 2007, DCSA hosted a working group
conference of law enforcement counterparts from Europe,
Africa, and the Middle East as part of the DEA's annual

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International Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC). DEA and
DCSA personnel continue to conduct intelligence-sharing and
coordinate joint criminal investigations on a daily basis.
Based on the October 1997 International Conference on
Multilateral Reporting in Lisbon, Portugal, the DEA
Headquarters Chemical Section and DCSA continue to exchange
pre-shipment notifications for illicit drug precursor
chemicals. (Note: Italy has not been identified as a
significant international producer or distributor of
methamphetamine precursor chemicals.)

During 2007, DEA continued the Drug Sample Program with the
GOI, which consists of the analysis of seized narcotics to
determine purity, cuttings agents, and source countries.
From January-October 2007, DEA received approximately 72
samples of heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy. DEA has expanded
this program to the countries of Slovenia, Croatia and
Albania. The sample collection from these countries and
others in the Balkans is essential in determining production
methods and trafficking trends that ultimately impact Italy.
DEA independently conducted drug awareness programs at
international schools in Rome and Milan. DEA also provided
training to Italian counterparts in the areas of asset
forfeiture and drug law enforcement operations.

The Road Ahead. The USG will continue to work closely with
Italian officials to break up trafficking networks into and
through Italy as well as to enhance both countries' abilities
to apply effective demand reduction policies. The USG will
also continue to work with Italy in multilateral settings
such as the Dublin Group of countries that coordinate
counternarcotics and UNODC policies. END
SPOGLI