Drug transportation routes changed: report

ISTANBUL - VIENNA

A Colombian police officer inspects a pack of confiscated marijuana in Cali Feb 27.REUTERS photo

Heroin smugglers decreased their use of Turkey as a drug passage into Europe in 2010, but the opium that reached Europe arrived mainly from Turkey and Iran, according to a recent report released by a U.N. narcotics agency.

The quantity of heroin seized in 2010 in Europe that had been smuggled along the northern Balkan route (via Turkey to Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and then Austria) decreased compared to the quantity that had been smuggled along the southern Balkan route (into Italy via Greece, Albania or the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), whereas the quantity that had been smuggled into Europe along the so-called “silk route” (via Central Asia) remained relatively stable, the report said.

There is increasing diversity in the methods and routes used, according to the World Customs Organization. The report also said Africa was becoming the predominant transit area for smuggling heroin by air into Europe and some heroin consignments from Turkey had been trafficked by air into Western and Central European countries. Meanwhile, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said that the opium seized by customs authorities in Western and Central Europe was mainly from Iran and Turkey, in its annual report published yesterday.