Greece: 2009-2010 INCSR, Part 1

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SUBJECT: Greece: 2009-2010 INCSR, Part 1

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1. (U) Greece's submission for the 2009-2010 INCSR, Part 1:



Greece 2009-2010 INCSR Part I: Drugs and Chemical Control




I. Summary



Greece is a "gateway" country in the transit of illicit drugs and
contraband. Although not a major transit country for drugs headed
for the United States, Greece is part of the traditional "Balkan
Route" for drugs flowing from drug-producing countries in the east
to drug-consuming countries in Western Europe. Greek authorities
report that drug abuse and addiction continue to climb in Greece as
the age for first-time drug use drops. Drug trafficking remains a
significant issue for Greece in its battle against organized crime.
Investigations initiated by the DEA and its Greek counterparts
suggest that a dramatic rise has occurred in the number and size of
drug trafficking organizations operating in Greece.



During 2009, the DEA and Hellenic authorities conducted numerous
counternarcotics investigations, which resulted in significant
arrests, narcotics seizures, and the dismantling of drug
trafficking organizations. The Greek court system and the Ministry
of Justice continued to lack databases for the case management and
tracking of convictions and sentences for traffickers. Greece is a
party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention.



II. Status of Country



With an extensive coastline, numerous islands, and land borders
with other drug transit countries, Greece's geography makes it a
favored drug transshipment country on the route to Western Europe.
Greece is also home to the world's largest merchant marine fleet.
While many of these vessels fly flags of countries such as Panama
and Liberia, it is estimated that Greek firms own one out of every
six cargo vessels and control 20-25 percent of cargo shipments
worldwide. The utilization of cargo vessels is the cheapest,
fastest and most secure method to transport multi-ton quantities of
cocaine from South America to distribution centers in Europe and
the United States.



Greece is not a significant drug producing country. However, in
recent years, Greek authorities have noted a rise in marijuana
production. Some of the Greece-based organizations involved in
marijuana production have exported large quantities of the drug to
countries in Western Europe, such as Holland. Greek authorities
estimate that annual production of the drug, most of which is
exported, appears to be well over 80 tons. Crete, Arcadia,
Messinia, Ileia, and Laconia are the top production regions, while
only Arta and Grevena appear to have completely clean records. Only
10-20 percent of the domestically grown marijuana is believed to be
consumed locally. Marijuana for local consumption is also imported
from Albania.



III. Country Actions against Drugs in 2009



Policy Initiatives. Greece participates in the Southeast European
Cooperative Initiative's (SECI) anticrime initiative and in a
specialized counternarcotics task force at the regional Anti-Crime
Center in Bucharest. Enhanced cooperation among SECI member states
has the potential to disrupt and eventually eliminate the ability
of drug trafficking organizations to operate in the region.



Law Enforcement Efforts. Several notable joint U.S./Greek
counternarcotics investigations occurred during 2009 with
significant arrests and seizures. Drug trafficking organizations
in the Balkan region, including Greece, usually transport Afghan
heroin from the Middle East and Turkey to Western Europe. Recent

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investigations and trends indicate more frequent and larger cocaine
seizures made by Greek authorities. In recent years Greek
counternarcotics authorities have had increasing success tackling
leadership elements in major drug trafficking organizations.



In October 2009, after domestic elections and a change of
government, Greek authorities reorganized their law enforcement
ministries, creating the new Ministry of Citizen's Protection
(MCP). The MCP gained oversight over the Hellenic Police and
Hellenic Coast Guard and all related counternarcotics divisions.
While the narcotics police do not have dedicated seaborne units,
the Hellenic Coast Guard has its own drug unit for maritime
interdiction. Specialized financial units work with customs
authorities for interdiction at ports.



In late December 2008, the DEA Athens Country Office received
intelligence regarding a container scheduled to arrive in Greece
from Colombia carrying a large quantity of cocaine concealed in
wood. The intelligence received indicated that this method was
highly sophisticated and the cocaine would be undetectable to both
trained canines and scanning equipment. This information was
passed to the Greek authorities and in early January 2009 they
identified the container and found inside eight pallets of plywood
totaling six hundred pieces. Greek authorities scanned the
plywood, using five trained drug odor-detecting canines, but none
of the canines detected the presence of cocaine. After conducting
a more detailed search, Greek authorities discovered four pieces of
wood containing 70 kilograms of cocaine divided into 285 packages.



On January 29, 2009, Hellenic police in Athens raided a cocaine lab
and arrested one person of Uzbek nationality and one Greek. Greek
authorities seized 2.95 kilograms of cocaine, 0.7 kilograms of
unprocessed marijuana, and 9.5 kilograms of white powder used to
"cut" the cocaine.



In early February 2009, Greek authorities made two separate heroin
seizures at the Greece-Turkey border crossing at Kipoi. In the
first case, authorities arrested two Bulgarian nationals and seized
57.8 kilograms of heroin. In the other case, authorities arrested
an Italian national and seized 38 kilograms of heroin. In both
cases the heroin was hidden in a vehicle attempting to enter Greece
from Turkey.



In February 2009, Greek authorities completed a two-month
investigation resulting in the dismantling of a family-operated
hashish trafficking organization operating in Greece. The
organization imported hashish from Albania. At the conclusion of
the investigation, authorities arrested eight individuals and
seized 160.5 kilograms of hashish and 437,455 euro (656,000 USD) in
cash.



On July 6, 2009, the Hellenic Police announced that they had
dismantled two drug trafficking rings and arrested eight foreign
nationals. During the first raid, police seized 5.635 kilograms of
heroin and 140 grams of cocaine. Police also raided a heroin
laboratory and discovered an arms cache with multiple rifles and 5
kilograms of explosives.



In July 2009, DEA Athens provided intelligence to the Hellenic
Special Control Services (YPEE) on five containers loaded with
scrap metal and shipped from Bolivia. YPEE x-rayed the containers,
revealing suspect metal boxes inside. Greek authorities discovered
a total of eight boxes, constructed of heavy seal and with all
openings welded shut, containing 457 kilograms of cocaine, divided
into 400 packages.



In August 2009, Greek authorities arrested five individuals
transporting marijuana in the eastern outskirts of Athens. The
marijuana came from Albania and was brought into Greece via the
island of Corfu.

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While Greek law enforcement authorities achieved successes in
making seizures and arrests, the Greek court system and the
Ministry of Justice continued to lack databases to track
convictions and sentences for traffickers. This lack of
information management capacity also hindered the ability of law
enforcement authorities to manage and complete complex, long-term
investigations in narcotics trafficking.





Drug Seizure Statistics, 2005-2007

Source: Coordinating Body for Drug Enforcement, National
Information Unit



Statistics are provided in this format: 2005 / 2006 / 2007



Drug Seizures (Cases): 10,461 / 9,873 / 9,540

Accused Persons (Persons): 14,922 / 13,963 / 13,253



Cannabis:

Processed Hashish (kg): 10,209.28 / 74.964 / 4.833

Unprocessed Cannabis (kg): 8,004.04 / 12,314.205 / 6,909.688

Hashish "Honey Oil" (kg): 3.011 / 0.523 / 1.484

Cannabis Plants (units): 34,993 / 32,495 / 17,611



Opiates:

Heroin and Morphine (kg): 331.329 / 312.243 / 259.33

Raw Opium (kg): 1.680 / 0.314 / 24.891

Methadone (kg): 8.719 / 9.456 / 24.783

Codeine (tablets): 0 / 50.5 / 0

Other Opiates (kg): 0.023 / 0.419 / 0.005

Poppy Plants (units): 0 / 0 / 62



Stimulants:

Cocaine (kg): 42.819 / 60.658 / 225.247

Coca Leaves (kg): 0.005 / 0.898 / 0.115

Amphetamines (kg): 1.11 / 0.05 / 0.112

Methamphetamines (kg): 0.09 / 0.006 / 0.066

Crystal Methamphetamines (kg): 0 / 0 / 0.079

Ecstasy (kg): 0.023 / 0.051 / 0.281

Qat (kg): 34.398 / 25.08 / 10.697

New Synthetic Drugs (kg): 0 / 0.288 / 0.047



Narcotic Pharmaceuticals:

Hallucinogens (kg): 0 / 0.83 / 0

LSD (drops): 120 / 146 / 2,880

LSD (tablets): 6 / 120 / 4

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Psilocybin (kg): 0 / 0.041 / 0

Tranquilizers (kg): 0.1 / 0.058 / 0.261

Barbiturates (kg): 0.003 / 0 / 0



Precursor Substances:

Ephedrine Hydrochloride (tablets): 1088 / 14 / 0

Sassafras Oil (liters): 0 / 0 / 3



Burgled Drugstores: 43 / 33 / 19



Drug Seizure Statistics, 2008 (Attica Region Only)

Sources: Hellenic National Police (HNP),Hellenic Coast Guard
(HCG),and the Hellenic Special Control Service (YPEE)



Drug Seizures (cases): 895

Persons Arrested: 1,129



Marijuana/Hashish (kg): 328

Heroin (kg): 296

Cocaine (kg): 3,246 (includes 3,210 kg seized by the French Coast
Guard, using Greek intelligence)

Coca Leaves (kg): 0.0059



Cash Seized (euro): 659,648 euro (989,000 USD)



Corruption. Officers and representatives of Greece's law
enforcement agencies are generally under-trained and underpaid.
Thus, corruption in law enforcement is a problem. In November 2007,
corrupt law enforcement officers and politicians were involved with
a large-scale, international drug trafficking organization that was
producing multi-ton quantities of marijuana on the island of Crete.
Subsequent investigation revealed that this organization had
exported large quantities of marijuana to Holland for many years.
In September 2008, a former Minister and personal aide of the Prime
Minister was convicted and given a 12-month suspended prison
sentence for intervening on behalf of a constituent who was growing
cannabis.



As a matter of government policy, Greece neither encourages nor
facilitates the illicit production or distribution of narcotics,
psychotropic drugs, or other controlled substances or the
laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions.



Agreements and Treaties. Greece is a party to the 1988 UN Drug
Convention, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and
the 1961 UN Single Convention as amended by its 1972 Protocol. An
agreement between Greece and the United States to exchange
information on narcotics trafficking has been in force since 1928.
A bilateral mutual legal assistance treaty and an extradition
treaty between the U.S. and Greece are in force. In addition, the
Greek parliament ratified the U.S.-EU mutual legal assistance and
extradition agreements in September 2009.



However, in practice the Greek government refuses to extradite
Greek nationals and Greek-Americans to the United States, because
to do so would violate article 438 of the Greek penal code. The
United States and Greece also have concluded a customs mutual
assistance agreement (CMAA). The CMAA allows for the exchange of

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information, intelligence, and documents to assist in the
prevention and investigation of customs offenses, including the
identification and screening of containers that pose a terrorism
risk. Greece ratified the UN Convention against Corruption in
September 2008; Greece has signed, but has not yet ratified, the UN
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.



Cultivation/Production. Marijuana is the only illicit drug produced
in Greece. In November 2007, Greek authorities dismantled a
large-scale, international drug trafficking organization that was
producing marijuana on the island of Crete. Documents found by
Greek authorities indicate that the organization had been supplying
ton quantities of marijuana to countries in Western Europe for many
years.



Greek authorities continued to discover marijuana cultivation areas
throughout 2009. In March, police arrested a marijuana grower in
Iraklion, Crete. In July, police destroyed 39 cannabis plants in
Messinia, in southern Greece. During the same month, police in
Athens destroyed 885 plants fed by an automatic spring irrigation
system. Police in Chania, Crete announced in July that they had
confiscated 1,493 cannabis plants and 11 kilograms of unprocessed
marijuana since the beginning of 2009.



Drug Flow/Transit. Greece is part of the "Balkan Route" and as such
is a transshipment country for Afghan heroin, and marijuana coming
predominantly from the Middle East and Africa. 2007 statistics,
released in 2008, indicate that one ton of heroin transited the
city of Thessaloniki--only 10% of which was confiscated by police.
In addition, metric-ton quantities of marijuana and smaller
quantities of other drugs (principally synthetic drugs) are
trafficked into Greece from Albania, Bulgaria, and the Republic of
Macedonia. Hashish is offloaded in remote areas of the country and
transported to Western Europe by boat or overland. Larger shipments
are smuggled into Greece in shipping containers, on bonded
Transport International Routier ("TIR") trucks, in automobiles, on
trains, and in buses. Some Afghan heroin is smuggled into the
United States by way of Greece, but there is no evidence that
significant amounts of narcotics are entering the United States
from Greece.



Domestic Programs/Demand Reduction. Drug addiction problems
continued to increase in Greece. According to 2006 statistics from
the National Documentation Center for Narcotics and Addiction, run
by the Mental Health Research Institute of the Medical School of
the University of Athens, 19.4 percent of the Greek population
between 12 and 64 years of age reported that they experimented or
used an illegal substance at least once. The most commonly used
substances were chemical solvents, marijuana, and heroin. There was
a surge in the illegal use of tranquilizers and, to a lesser
extent, Ecstasy pills, reflecting growth in the European synthetic
drug market. The government of Greece estimated that there were
between 20,000 and 30,000 addicts in Greece and that the addict
population was growing; approximately 20,000 individuals were
addicted to heroin, and 9,500 of this population used injected
heroin. Recent enforcement trends indicated a rise in the
distribution and use of cocaine within Greece and in Europe in
general. Cocaine use has tripled in Europe over the past decade.



Media reported in March 2009 that the Ministry of Justice and
universities in Thessaloniki faced serious problems testing the
urine and blood samples of detainees claiming to be drug addicts,
leading to delays in trials. According to the reports,
Thessaloniki police also experienced trouble storing samples.



Demand reduction programs in Greece are typically
government-supported; few drug prevention and treatment programs
with independent or private funding exist. The DEA regularly
conducts Demand Reduction Seminars for parents and students
attending local and international elementary and high schools
throughout Greece.



The Organization against Narcotics (OKANA) is a

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government-supported agency that coordinates the prevention,
treatment and rehabilitation of drug addiction in Greece. Besides
OKANA, other officially supported drug treatment organizations
include the Therapy Center for Dependent Individuals (KETHEA),the
"18 Ano" Detoxification Unit of the Psychiatric Hospital of Attika,
the Psychiatric Hospital of Thessaloniki, the Psychiatric Clinic of
the University of Athens, and other public hospitals in Greece
which run joint programs with OKANA. OKANA operates 71 prevention
centers, 57 therapeutic rehabilitation centers (33 of which offer
"drug free" programs),and 24 drug addiction substitution centers,
offering methadone and buprenorphine. In 2006, 4,847 drug addicts
were treated (a 14% increase over 2005),and while 3,250
individuals were treated in drug substitution programs, as of May
2007 the waiting list was 4,000 persons. OKANA extended its
programs to new regions in 2007 and 2008 despite strong local
reactions against the establishment of treatment centers.



KETHEA operates 90 centers throughout Greece offering prevention,
support, and drug awareness programs, as well as social
rehabilitation, therapeutic communities in jails, street work
programs, training, and a hot line. KETHEA reported offering its
services to approximately 3,000 drugs users and family members each
day. Demand for these prevention and treatment programs continues
to outstrip supply. In June 2008, a Thessaloniki newspaper reported
that a lack of funding for drug addiction treatment and prevention
centers in the city contributed to long waiting lists for these
rehabilitation programs. The report indicated that 950 persons were
in treatment but that the waiting list was approximately 1,500
persons long.



Narcotics Anonymous runs over 27 drug abstinence and anti-addiction
programs throughout Greece.



IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs



Bilateral Cooperation. DEA agents work with the Hellenic Police to
support coordination of regional counternarcotics efforts through
joint operations as well as training seminars. The DEA Athens
Country Office conducted multiple workshops throughout the country
with counterparts from the Hellenic Police and Hellenic Coast Guard
during this year. The workshops provided an opportunity for DEA
personnel and Greek counterparts to receive and exchange ideas on
various issues, including regional drug trends, the nexus between
drug trafficking and terrorism, officer safety and survival,
undercover operations, and confidential source management. The
workshops were well received by Greek law enforcement authorities
and the Hellenic Police has expressed interest in further events.



In February 2009, agents from DEA Athens organized a narcotics
cooperation seminar for Greek police, Customs, and Coast Guard
officers in Thessaloniki. In May 2009, a DEA international
training team traveled to Athens and conducted a week-long regional
drug enforcement seminar for Greek, Bulgarian, and Cypriot
authorities.



Due to Greece's unique geographic significance as a border state
for the European Union (EU) with over 9,900 miles of coastline to
monitor, the DEA conducted an assessment of drug trafficking
through Greek islands over several months in 2009. The assessment
confirmed that drugs regularly enter Greece (and the EU) through
islands near to Turkey and Albania.



Prior to the DEA assessment, law enforcement authorities believed
that human smuggling and drug trafficking organizations may have
used the same routes, but operated independently. However, the
Greek islands study identified an emerging trend--illegal
immigrants are increasingly being used as drug couriers. The
assessment also found that Greek authorities assigned to Greek
islands are understaffed, under-trained, and have limited resources
to combat the threats they face.

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The Road Ahead. The United States continues to encourage the
government of Greece to participate actively in international
organizations focused on narcotics assistance coordination efforts,
such as the Dublin Group of narcotics assistance donor countries.
U.S. agencies in Greece seek to enhance the ability of Greek law
enforcement authorities to share and disseminate information,
disrupt drug trafficking, and build expertise in complex
investigations. The DEA will continue to organize regional and
international conferences, seminars, and workshops with the goal of
building regional cooperation and coordination in the effort
against narcotics trafficking.
Speckhard