Pakistan: 2009 INCSR Submission, Part I - Narcotics and

UNCLAS ISLAMABAD 000025 STATE FOR INL/AP, SCA/PB JUSTICE FOR OIA, AFMLS, NDDS TREASURY FOR FINCEN DEA FOR OILS AND OFFICE OF DIVERSION CONTROL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR KCRM PK SUBJECT: Pakistan: 2009 INCSR Submission, Part I - Narcotics and Chemical Control REF: 08 STATE 100992 SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (U) Pakistan is on the frontline of the war against drugs as a major transit country for opiates and hashish from and precursor chemicals to neighboring Afghanistan. In 2008, Pakistani forces have engaged the militants along the border with Afghanistan, particularly in the Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Militant groups have challenged the forces throughout FATA and are encroaching into the settled areas of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP),such as the Swat valley and the settled district of Peshawar, the provincial capital. The joint Narcotics Affairs Section and GOP Narcotics Control Cell poppy survey of 2008 indicated that 1,909 hectares (ha) of poppy were cultivated in 2008 (about one percent of the cultivation in Afghanistan). Poppy cultivation levels in 2007 were 2,315 ha and in 2006 1,908 ha. In 2007, 614 ha were eradicated, bringing harvested poppy down to 1,701 ha. In 2008 there was no eradication because both the Frontier Corps and Tribal Levies in FATA were tied down by militants. Nevertheless, despite the lack of the deterrent effect of eradication, Pakistan saw a decrease of poppy cultivation in ¶2008. ¶2. (U) Civil forces destroyed no opium processing laboratories in Pakistan. The most recent destruction of an opium lab in Pakistan occurred in Balochistan in June 2006. Extensive opium processing occurs in Afghanistan adjacent to the Chagai region of Balochistan and the Khyber Agency of the NWFP. Pakistan is a major trafficking route for illegal drugs produced in Afghanistan; nonetheless, Pakistan claims to have no current evidence indicating the presence of opium processing labs on its territory. ¶3. (U) The UNODC survey of drug use in Pakistan was released in 2007 and estimated the number of opioid (heroin, morphine, codeine, etc.) drug users in Pakistan at 628,000, of whom 484,000 use heroin and of those, 125,000 inject drugs intravenously. Trends indicate a substantial rise in the use of cannabis (which continues to maintain limited social acceptability),sedatives, and tranquilizers; Ecstasy is an emerging trend in higher socio-economic urban youth groups. ¶4. (U) Statutorily, national counternarcotics efforts are led by �00A;the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) under the Ministry of Narcotics Control. The U.S. (State Department and DEA) and the international donor community have provided millions of dollars in financial assistance and training to the ANF to give it modern counternarcotics capabilities. Working with the ANF has also led to close partnerships with others in the international drug law enforcement community. Despite the funding and training given to Pakistan, there appears to be a systemic lack of willingness to exploit investigative leads. ¶5. (U) The GOP five-year Master Drug Control Plan, promised since 2006, has languished. ANF promised to have the Plan issued in early 2007, but that didn't happen. A revitalized Ministry of Narcotics Control has pursued the Plan since Spring 2008 and it may be released in early of 2009. ¶6. (U) Nevertheless, major counternarcotics interdictions continued with promising developments on the Makran coast. The Frontier Corps Baluchistan, the Pakistan Coast Guards, Customs and Excise, and the Maritime Security Agency, cooperated with each other to seize some 40 tons of hashish and hundreds of kilos of opium along the Makran coast between January and April 2008. The Home Departments of the NWFP and Baluchistan Provinces also are active in disrupting traffickers. ¶7. (U) In general, overall counternarcotics cooperation between the GOP and the United States has solid foundations and a record of accomplishment. U.S. assistance programs in counternarcotics and border security continue to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement agencies and improve their access to remote areas where much of the drug trafficking takes place, evidenced by 11 MT of heroin and 15 MT of opium seized in 2007, and in the first half of 2008 1.5 MT of heroin, 4 MT of morphine base, 77 MT of hashish, and 11.4 MT of opium. ¶8. (U) The 1931 US-UK extradition treaty that is in force with respect to Pakistan is outmoded. Pakistan's Extradition Act is also in need of modernization. Extradition to the United States of persons charged with narcotics offenses and other crimes continues to be delayed for years due to judicial and administrative delays, with GOP authorities taking little action to resolve judicial delays. Pakistan is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention. The US-Pakistan Joint Working Group on Law Enforcement and Counter-Terrorism has met four times; the latest occurred in Islamabad as part of the U.S.-Pakistan Counterterrorism Dialogue in August 2008. The JWG is chaired at the Ministerial level on the Pakistan side and Assistant Secretary level on the U.S. side, and addresses the effectiveness of U.S. counternarcotics programs in Pakistan and other law enforcement cooperation. END SUMMARY II. Status of Country -------------- ¶9. (U) The GOP is committed to regaining the poppy-free status it reached in 2001. Since then tensions between the GOP and Pakistan's tribal populations on the Afghan border have increased. Small cultivators in remote areas tried to exploit this tension by resuming poppy cultivation at levels not seen for a decade. Poppy cultivation went from 213 ha in 2001 to 7,571 ha in 2004. The GOP responded with forceful eradication campaigns, destroying 4,400 ha in 2004 and reversed the trend in 2005 and 2006, reducing the poppy harvest (i.e., after eradication) to 1,549 ha by 2006. In the tribal belt, where militant activity is a continuous threat, 1,847 ha were cultivated this year, down from 2,315 ha in 2007. Under these circumstances, and given the lack of eradication and enforcement capability resulting from deployments of thousands of Frontier Corps forces to North and South Waziristan, the net harvest of only 1,907 ha (one percent of Afghanistan's 2007 crop) for the entire country, demonstrates that the long-standing GOP campaign against poppy cultivation is being sustained even when the eradication threat does not materialize. ¶10. (U) Opium production in neighboring Afghanistan continues at astronomical levels in excess of world demand but is down from 2007's all-time high. Given the huge supply within Afghanistan, Pakistan remains a significant transit country of heroin, morphine base, opium, and hashish, and is a conduit to Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, East Asia, and Africa by land and sea. The U.S.-funded Border Security Project, which began in 2002, is building GOP interdiction capabilities along the 1600-kilometer Afghan border, as demonstrated by significant drug seizures in 2008 by border security forces such as the Frontier Corps Baluchistan. However, successfully interdicting drug shipments is difficult given the vast terrain, the sheer number of smuggling routes, the lack of resources, scant law enforcement training in reconnaissance and combined ground/air operations, and the fact that smugglers keep adapting their tactics. ¶11. (U) Pakistan's position as a major drug transit country has fueled domestic addiction, especially in areas of poor economic opportunity and physical isolation. The GOP estimates that they have up to four million drug users in the total population of 170 million. Accurate figures do not exist but better estimates are now available thanks to UNODC's 2006 National Assessment on Problem Drug Use in Pakistan. The study estimated that there were 628,000 (up from 500,000 in 2000) chronic opiate abusers and identified a new trend of injecting narcotics, which raised concerns about HIV/AIDS. The UNODC survey reveals that the number of chronic heroin abusers has increased and that the numbers of injecting drug users has doubled in the last 6 years from 60,000 to 125,000, with implications for hepatitis and HIV infection rates. ¶12. (U) Pakistan has established a chemical control program that should closely monitor the importation of controlled chemicals used to manufacture narcotics. Significant quantities of diverted precursor chemicals transit Pakistan, but there is no indication that Pakistan is a source country for these precursor chemicals. The impressive seizure of 14 MT of acetic anhydride at the port of Karachi in March 2008 was not followed up by the investigative agency, which failed to develop promising leads. Some progress has been made in determining the routes and methods used by traffickers to smuggle chemicals through Pakistan into Afghanistan. Most Afghan labs are in Helmand province near the Baluchistan border or in Nangahar near the Khyber Agency in the NWFP. DEA continues to provide Pakistani law enforcement with information regarding chemical seizures that may have links with Pakistani smuggling groups and/or chemical companies, to facilitate further investigation within Pakistan. III. Country Actions Against Drugs in 2008 -------------- ¶13. (U) Policy Initiatives: As of the end of 2008, the Drug Control Master Plan is still waiting for approval by the Cabinet. Publication of the national plan was anticipated in early 2007, and delay in its release is a concern. The plan should identify interdiction strategies, agency responsibilities, and inter-agency coordination as well as training and equipping requirements for attacking drug supply and demand. The Ministry of Narcotics Control, in coordination with UNODC, continues to work on the plan. The GOP also seeks to regain "poppy-free" status, which it had secured from the United Nations in 2001, by enforcing a strict "no tolerance" policy for cultivation. Federal and provincial authorities continue anti-poppy campaigns in both Baluchistan and NWFP, informing local and tribal leaders to observe the poppy ban or face forced eradication, fines, and arrests. Security concerns in the Khyber Agency, where the majority of Pakistani poppy continues to be harvested, prevented full realization of the GOP's goal to be "poppy-free" in 2007-2008. ¶14. (U) ANF is the lead counternarcotics agency in Pakistan. Other law enforcement agencies have counternarcotics mandates, including the Frontier Corps Baluchistan (FCB) and Frontier Corps NWFP (FCN), the Pakistan Coast Guards, the Maritime Security Agency, the Frontier Constabulary (FCONS),the Rangers, Customs and Excise, the police, and the Airport Security Force (ASF). The GOP approved significant personnel expansions for the ANF, the FCB and FCN, and the FCONS in 2006 and 2007. The ANF now has over 2000 personnel. The Pakistan Coast Guard has started using anti-drug cells (or units) to better coordinate and execute counternarcotics operations. ¶15. (U) Law Enforcement Efforts: In 2007, GOP law enforcement and security forces reported seizing 10.9 MT of heroin/morphine and 15.3 MT of opium. Also, 93.8 MT of hashish was seized in this time period. As of September 2008, seizures of heroin/morphine base total 5.6 MT, 77.5 MT hashish, and 11.4 MT opium. ¶16. (U) According to the ANF, in 2007, all GOP law enforcement authorities reported arresting 50,100 individuals (48,724 cases) on drug-related charges for 2007. The ANF itself had 1,702 cases pending, 1,187 from 2006 and 515 new cases through September 2007. Of that total there were 301 convictions through October 1, 2007. (Figures for 2008 are not yet available). The great majority of narcotics cases that go to trial continue to be uncomplicated drug possession cases involving low-level couriers and straightforward evidence. The problematic cases tend to involve more influential, wealthier defendants. To date the ANF continues to prosecute appeals in seven long-running cases in the Pakistani legal system against major drug traffickers, including Munawar Hussain Manj, Sakhi Dost Jan Notazai, Rehmat Shah Afridi, Tasnim Jalal Goraya, Haji Muhammad Iqbal Baig, Ashraf Rana, and Muhammad Ayub Khan Afridi. ¶17. (U) Since many strong cases were reversed on appeal, in an effort to address those reversals, the ANF has hired its own special prosecutors. The ANF also added additional attorneys as part of its expansion. The DEA continues to advance the concept of conspiracy investigations (i.e., active planning with serious intent to commit a crime) with the ANF to target major traffickers. Through September 30, 2007, drug traffickers' assets totaling Rs 110.8 million rupees (about $1.8 million USD) remained frozen. ¶18. (U) In 2005, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz approved 1,166 new positions for the ANF with the first group of 600 graduating in mid-2007. The GOP also approved an increase of 10,264 personnel for the Frontier Corps Baluchistan to increase their capacity along the border with Afghanistan and Iran. In 2000, the DEA vetted and funded the ANF Special Investigative Cell (SIC) to target major drug trafficking organizations operating in Pakistan. Each vetted investigator undergoes a thorough screening and a five-week training course at the DEA training facility in Quantico. ¶19. (U) Corruption: The United States has no evidence that the GOP or any of its senior officials encourage or facilitate the illicit production or distribution of narcotic or psychotropic drugs or other controlled substances or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions. However, with government salaries low and societal and government corruption endemic, it is not surprising that some narcotics-related corruption among government employees occurs. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB),a Pakistani agency tasked with investigation and prosecution of corruption cases (not only narcotics-related),reports that it received 13,722 complaints of corruption in 2006, of which it investigated 701 cases and completed 241 cases. The investigations resulted in 165 arrest warrants and 46 convictions. NAB recovered Rs.930 million rupees (almost $15.5 million) from officials, politicians, and businessmen in 2006 through plea bargains and voluntary return arrangements. ¶20. (U) Agreements and Treaties: Pakistan is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, the 1961 UN Single Convention as amended by the 1972 Protocol, and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. The United States provides counternarcotics and law enforcement assistance to Pakistan under a Letter of Agreement (LOA). This LOA provides the terms and funding for cooperation in border security, opium poppy eradication, narcotics law enforcement, and drug demand reduction efforts. There is no mutual legal assistance treaty between the U.S. and Pakistan, nor does Pakistan have a mutual legal assistance law; it has not been helpful with U.S. requests. The U.S. and Pakistan's extradition agreement is carried out under the terms of the 1931 U.S.-U.K. Extradition Treaty, which continued in force after Pakistan gained independence in 1947. Both the Extradition Treaty and Pakistan's Extradition Act are outmoded. Lack of action by Pakistani authorities and courts on pending extradition requests for four drug-related cases continues to be of concern to the United States. Obstacles to extradition include inexperience of GOP public prosecutors, an interminable appeals process that tolerates defense-delaying tactics, and corruption. Pakistan is a party to the UN Convention against Corruption, and has signed, but has not yet ratified, the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime. ¶21. (U) Cultivation/Production: Through interagency ground monitoring and aerial surveys, the GOP and USG confirmed that Pakistan's poppy harvest increased by roughly 400 ha. In 2008, Pakistan cultivated 1,907 ha, compared to cultivation of approximately 2,315 ha in 2007. The actual number of hectares harvested increased 206 ha to 1,907 due to the inability to mount any eradication effort. Based on the GOP's methodology for determining poppy crop yield, which estimates that approximately 25 kg of opium are produced per hectare of land cultivated, Pakistan's potential opium production was approximately 47.6 MT in 2008. ¶22. (U) Cultivation in the "non-traditional" areas in NWFP remained almost completely contained this year, with Kala Dhaka as the only trouble spot. The USG does not fund any application of aerially applied herbicides in Pakistan. ¶23. (U) The NWFP Government struggled this year to contain poppy in the FATA agencies where both the Pakistani Army and the FCN are combating an aggressive militancy, including elements of al-Qaida. FC force concentrations in North and South Waziristan mean that there are no troops available to combat poppy cultivation in Khyber, Bajaur, and Mohmand, where 1,729 ha of poppy were cultivated. Ground monitoring teams continue to observe, particularly in Khyber, a trend of increased cultivation within walled compounds to prevent eradication. ¶24. (U) Drug Flow/Transit: Although no exact figure exists for the quantity of narcotics flowing across the Pakistan-Afghan border, the ANF estimates that 36 percent of illicit opiates exported from Afghanistan transit Pakistan en route to Iran, Western Europe, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, Africa, and East Asia. The UNODC's Afghanistan Opium Survey 2008 notes that 157,000 ha of poppy were cultivated in 2007. The total combined cultivation of 350,000 ha in 2007 and 2008 in Afghanistan almost certainly means more opiates transiting Pakistan and probably escalating domestic drug use in Pakistan. The GOP is alert to the possibility that law enforcement efforts in Afghanistan could push drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and labs into Pakistan. Many of the DTOs already have cells throughout Pakistan, predominantly in remote areas of Baluchistan where there is little or no law enforcement presence. DTOs in Pakistan are still fragmented and decentralized, but individuals working in the drug trade often become "specialists" in processing, transportation, or money laundering and sometimes act as independent contractors for several different criminal organizations. ¶25. (U) Much of the opioid produced in Afghanistan is smuggled through Pakistan to more lucrative markets in Iran, the Arabian peninsula, and onward to Europe, including Russia and Eastern Europe. The balance goes to the Western Hemisphere and to Southeast Asia where it appears to supplement opiate shortfalls in the Southeast Asia region. Couriers intercepted in Pakistan are en route to Africa, Nepal, India, Europe, Thailand, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Middle East (especially the United Arab Emirates (UAE)). Pakistani law enforcement notes that precursor chemicals such as acetic anhydride are most likely smuggled through UAE, Central Asia, China, South Korea, and India to Pakistan, then on to Afghanistan in mislabeled containers that form part of the Afghan transit trade. Ecstasy, buprenorphine (an opiate adapted for use in the treatment of opiate addiction),and other psychotropics are smuggled from India, UAE, and Europe for the local Pakistani market. Small amounts of cocaine smuggled into the country by West African DTOs have also been seized. ¶26. (U) Afghan opiates trafficked to Europe and North America enter Pakistan's Baluchistan and NWFP Provinces and exit either through Iran or Pakistan's Makran coast or through Pakistan's international airports. Customs and ANF report that drugs are being smuggled in the cargo holds of dhows to Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates via the Arabian Sea. Some 40 MT of hashish were seized in the spring of 2008 by law enforcement on the Makran coast, in cooperation with Joint Task Force 150 in the Persian Gulf. Traffickers also transit land routes from Baluchistan to Iran and from the tribal agencies of NWFP to Afghanistan for transit through Central Asia. ¶27. (U) In Baluchistan, drug convoys are now smaller, typically two to three vehicles with well-armed guards and forward stationed scouts, who usually travel under cover of darkness. Several years ago there were seizures of 100-kg shipments, but now traffickers are transporting smaller quantities of drugs through multiple couriers, both female and male, to reduce the size of seizures and to protect their investment. This is evidenced by the 20-30 kg seizures, which are now typical. Other methods of shipment include inside false-sided luggage or concealment within legal objects (such as cell phone batteries or carpets),the postal system, or strapped to the body and concealed from drug sniffing dogs with special sprays. The ANF reports that traffickers frequently change their routes and concealment methods to avoid detection. West African traffickers are using more Central Asian, European, and Pakistani nationals as couriers. An increasing number of Pakistani females are being used as human couriers through Pakistan's international airports. In 2007, the GOP has also detected an increase in narcotics, both opium and hashish, traveling through Pakistan to China via airports and land routes. Arrests of couriers traveling via Pakistan to China have increased significantly. ¶28. (U) Demand Reduction: The GOP, in coordination with the UNODC, completed a drug use survey, which was published in 2007 and was based on data gathered in 2006. The survey indicates that Pakistan has approximately two to three million drug addicts, with around 628,000 opiate abusers. The alarming trend from the survey is the near doubling of the number of injecting drug users to an estimated 125,000. The prevalence of drug-users testing positive for HIV is estimated at nearly 11 percent in March 2007, with the city of Karachi having the highest prevalence (28 percent). Eleven percent of users reported being infected with hepatitis and 18 percent reported being infected with tuberculosis. With the increased use of intravenous drug abuse these diseases have the potential to spread rapidly. The age of first use is 18 years and the initial drug of choice is cannabis (hashish); first use of heroin is 22 years. Cannabis and heroin are the most widely used drugs, followed by opium. Prescription and synthetic drugs such as Ecstasy are gaining popularity among high-income users. The GOP views addicts as victims, not criminals. Despite the perseverance of a few NGOs and the establishment of two GOP model drug treatment and rehabilitation centers in Islamabad and Quetta, drug users have limited access to effective detoxification and rehabilitation services in Pakistan. The ANF is also tasked with reducing demand and increase drug use awareness. ¶29. (U) In 2008, ANF organized USG-funded seminars for religious leaders in each provincial capital. The USG funded several NGOs in their efforts aimed at drug awareness and treatment and rehabilitation. The first such program supports a drug treatment center in Peshawar via the Colombo Plan, extending an already-successful program with a local NGO. The second program included support to a Karachi-based NGO to set up and operate a drug treatment/rehabilitation center and to organize awareness campaigns on drug abuse prevention with schools, youth groups, industries/ workplaces, and communities. The USG funds an Islamabad-based NGO to provide drug prevention education at primary level. The USG supports outreach/drop-in centers in Karachi and Peshawar via the Colombo Plan and one outreach centre in the settled area of NWFP. In addition, the USG is collaborating with the UNODC to provide financial and technical support to a conference of demand-reduction NGOs to be held under the auspices of the Ministry of Narcotics Control in Islamabad. The seminar will provide a forum in which the stakeholders can exchange ideas and develop, with the GOP, a focused approach to tackling drug abuse. ¶30. (U) While the GOP appears to have the political will to do more in demand reduction, it lacks the human and technical resources and an updated, comprehensive strategy. We expect that the NGO seminar cited above will spark an interest in drug abuse issues and help the GOP develop a concerted policy plan to address the menace of drug abuse. IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs -------------- ¶31. (U) Policy Initiatives: It is increasingly clear that traffickers of hashish and opiates have financial links to the insurgents operating on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Drugs from Afghanistan transit Pakistan on their way to other parts of the world. The United States maintains several counternarcotics policy objectives in Pakistan that are in sync with America's larger goals of defeating insurgency on the Pak-Afghan border and preventing terrorist safe-havens in the FATA and Baluchistan. To achieve these objectives the US helps the GOP fortify its land borders and seacoast against drug trafficking and terrorists, supports expanded regional cooperation, encourages GOP efforts to eliminate poppy cultivation, and inhibits further cultivation. The United States is also working to increase the interdiction of narcotics from Afghanistan and to destroy DTOs by building the capacity of the GOP, as well as expanding demand reduction efforts. USG agencies continue to build GOP cooperation in the extradition of narcotics fugitives and to encourage enactment of comprehensive money laundering legislation. The United States is also focusing on streamlining Pakistani drug enforcement legislation, making it easier for the ANF and other law enforcement agencies to prosecute narcotics cases. The United States presses for the reform of law enforcement institutions and encourages cooperation among the GOP agencies with counternarcotics responsibilities. Although the ANF is the lead counternarcotics agency in Pakistan, the United States also focuses on improving anti-smuggling capabilities of law enforcement agencies, including the Customs Department, the Frontier Corps, and the National Police. ¶32. (U) Bilateral Cooperation: The United States, through the State Department-funded Counternarcotics Program and Border Security Project, provides operational support, commodities (e.g., vehicles, radios, and body armor),and training to the ANF and other law enforcement agencies. The United States also provides funding for demand reduction activities. Under the Border Security Project, the USG has built and refurbished 64 Frontier Corps outposts in Baluchistan and NWFP, and another 62 Levy (tribal police force) and 11 Frontier Constabulary outposts in the NWFP. Construction of 1423 km of roads in the border areas of the FATA is complete, and ongoing construction of 266 km continues to open up remote areas to law enforcement. Since 1989, the State Department also has funded construction of more than 547 km of counternarcotics program roads in previously inaccessible areas, facilitating farmer-to-market access for legitimate crops while providing authorities access for poppy eradication. The Department has implemented over 971 development projects to provide water and electricity to remote areas and to encourage alternative crops in Bajaur, Mohmand, and Khyber Agencies. Alternative crop programs were extended into Kala Dhaka and Kohistan in 2006, where this year seven kilometers of new road were completed and 45 kilometers are underway. A total of $10 million has been committed to road construction and small electrification and irrigation schemes for this earthquake-devastated area of NWFP. ¶33. (U) In September 2008, the new Resident Legal Advisor arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. The RLA will institute training for prosecutors in coordination with USAID's Rule of Law efforts. The training will develop and improve advocacy skills, police-prosecutor cooperation, prosecutorial ethics, and management of the prosecutorial function. This program will be coordinated with NAS's police training and assistance to ensure that police investigations provide the material needed by prosecutors and that the prosecutors communicate their requirements to police. ¶34. (U) The United States funds a Narcotics Control Cell in the FATA Secretariat to help coordinate counternarcotics efforts in the tribal areas, where the overwhelming majority of poppy is grown. The U.S.-supported Air Wing program operated by the Ministry of Interior (MOI) provides significant benefits to counternarcotics efforts and also serves to advance our Border Security objectives. DEA provides operational assistance and advice to ANF's Special Investigative Cell (SIC) to raise investigative standards. The Department of Defense began providing assistance to the Pakistan Coast Guards to improve the GOP's counternarcotics capabilities on the Makran Coast. ¶35. (U) The USG-supported Border Security Project continues to make progress in strengthening security along Pakistan's Afghan border through training to professionalize border forces, provision of vehicles and surveillance and communications equipment to improve patrolling of the remote border areas, and support for the Air Wing to assist in border surveillance and interdiction. Missions included transporting law enforcement forces to raid suspected drug compounds and drug processing facilities, poppy surveys, casualty evacuations (casevacs) for personnel injured during FC and ANF operations, support for law enforcement agencies along the Afghan border, and border reconnaissance. The three fixed-wing Cessna Caravans, equipped with FLIR surveillance equipment, executed 132 operational missions, including surveillance, casevacs, and command and control support for large operations. ¶36. (U) In May 2002 the first meeting took place of the US-Pakistan Joint Working Group on Law Enforcement and Counter-Terrorism ("JWG"). The JWG was established to create a bilateral mechanism to address the means of improving cooperative law enforcement efforts, assessing the progress on US-funded law enforcement projects in Pakistan, and combating terrorism. The fourth meeting occurred in Washington, DC, in April 2006 and the fifth meeting happened in Islamabad in August 2008. ¶37. (U) The Road Ahead: In 2006, the USG launched a five-year, $750 million FATA Development Strategy to support the Government of Pakistan's FATA Sustainable Development Plan (SDP). It features job creation, health, and educational services, institution building, infrastructural development, and measures for expanding the local economy. In addition, the U.S. is providing training and equipment to the Frontier Corps and Frontier Constabulary to improve security conditions and control of the border in the FATA and NWFP. State INL's historic role in supplanting a poppy-based economy in these peripheral areas with alternative development has been instrumental in shaping these plans. This local development also extends the writ of the government. ¶38. (U) The USG allocated $17 million in 2007 to NAS to expand road and bridge building activity and programs to upgrade law enforcement institutions, such as the Frontier Corps, the Frontier Constabulary, and the FATA internal police force (Levies),made up of personnel recruited from the tribes in FATA. An additional $7.2 million was allocated in 2007 to NAS for crop control, law enforcement in general, and border security training, commodities and infrastructure. NAS will partner with the FATA Secretariat to provide training and commodities to the newly raised Levy Forces. These initiatives will enhance security throughout the seven FATA Agencies, enabling USAID and other developmental efforts to move forward. ¶39. (U) The United States will continue to assist the GOP in its nation-wide efforts to eliminate poppy, to build capacity to secure its borders, to conduct investigations that dismantle drug trafficking organizations, to increase convictions and asset forfeitures, and to reduce demand for illicit drugs through enhanced prevention, intervention, and treatment programs. Implementation of these strategies will require GOP perseverance in strict enforcement of the poppy ban and eradication efforts, development of an indigenous drug intelligence capability, improvements in the prosecution and resolution of court cases, GOP interagency cooperation, more effective use of resources and training, and enhanced regional cooperation and information sharing. ¶V. Statistical Tables -------------- ¶40. (U) Drug Crop - Opium Poppy a) Cultivation: 2008 - 1,909 ha; 2007 - 2,315 ha; 2006 - 1,908 ha; 2005 - 3,147 ha; 2004 - 6,600 - 7,500 ha; 2003 - 6,811 ha b) Harvested: 2008 - 1,909 ha; 2007 - 1,701 ha; 2006 - 1,545 ha; 2005 - 2,440 ha; 2004 - 3,145 ha; 2003 - 3,170 ha c) Eradication: 2008 - none; 2007 - 614 ha; 2006 - 363 ha; 2005 - 707 ha; 2004 - 4,426 ha; 2003 - 3,641 ha d) Seizures heroin (including morphine base): 2008 - 5.3 MT; 2007 - 10.9 MT; 2006 - 35.3 MT; Jan-Nov 2005 - 24 MT; 2004 - 24.7 MT; 2003 - 34 MT e) Seizures opium: 2008 - 18.2 MT; 2007 - 15.3 MT; 2006 - 8.0 MT; Jan-Nov 2005 - 6.1 MT; 2004 - 2.5 MT; 2003 - 5.4 MT f) Seizures hashish: 2008 - 80.6 MT; 2007 - 93.8 MT; 2006 -110.5 MT; 2005 - 80 MT; 2004 - 136 MT; 2003 - 87.8 MT g) Illicit Labs Destroyed: No labs have been destroyed to date. h) Arrests (total): 2008 - 31,330; 2007 - 50,100; Jan-Oct 1, 2006 - 34,170; Jan-Nov 2005 - 33,932; 2004 - 49,186; 2003 - 46,346 i) Number of Users: No reliable data exists. The last National Survey of Drug Abuse in Pakistan in 1993 estimated 3.01 million drug addicts in Pakistan. We do not have reliable new estimates, but most experts believe that the number has grown. The recent 2006 UNODC survey estimated 628,000 chronic opiate users. PATTERSON