9-22-19 Precursor chemicals, which get diverted for the illicit manufacture of synthetic opioids or heroin, are sneaked into African countries from China and India….
Drug traffickers such as the Akasha brothers would use the chemicals to secretly mass produce synthetic drugs at laboratories they had set up in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Burundi and Mozambique….
Hamisi Massa, the head of Kenya’s Anti-Narcotics Unit, said China and India were the main sources of precursor chemicals used to illicitly make drugs and especially of Mandrax, abba and ephedrine.
Once the drugs were made, they would be moved by private yachts and through unpoliced ports, according to security experts in Kenya.
Analysts say a lack of regulatory oversight has created favourable conditions for the mass production and exportation of synthetic opioids and other chemicals between the Asian countries and Africa….
“Unlike China, India does not have the controls and as a result, you have many pharmaceutical companies producing vast amounts of drugs that get diverted into the black market,” Franklin said. “As you walk into a chemist here in Nairobi, you can buy a tramadol for US$1 a tablet.”
This action coincided with the sentencing in New York of Kenyan drug kingpin Baktash Akasha to 25 years in prison. Baktash’s brother, Ibrahim, who has pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking drugs to the United States, is to be sentenced in November.
Documents related to the Akasha brothers’ cases, filed in a district court in New York state, give a rare glimpse into how Asian countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran may be fuelling the drug-abuse crisis on the Kenyan coast and in other African cities such as Lagos in Nigeria, and Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria in South Africa.
Cocaine from South American countries such as Colombia and Bolivia is trafficked through Africa, and especially via East, West and North Africa, en route to lucrative markets in Europe.
But trade is not as prominent in cocaine as in heroin, according to security experts that track narcotics trafficking trends.
Hamisi Massa, the head of Kenya’s Anti-Narcotics Unit, said China and India were the main sources of precursor chemicals used to illicitly make drugs and especially of Mandrax, abba and ephedrine.
Drug traffickers such as the Akasha brothers would use the chemicals to secretly mass produce synthetic drugs at laboratories they had set up in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Burundi and Mozambique.
Once the drugs were made, they would be moved by private yachts and through unpoliced ports, according to security experts in Kenya.
Analysts say a lack of regulatory oversight has created favourable conditions for the mass production and exportation of synthetic opioids and other chemicals between the Asian countries and Africa….
Illicit labs in China ship the substances to foreign drug markets, especially those in Africa, for synthetic drug production….
Kenyan-based Security Advisory Services consultant Andrew Franklin said India was a huge source of tramadol – a form of opioid – that had spread all over Nigeria and was readily available over the counter in Kenya.
He said most precursors were used to make fentanyl, a synthetic heroin. Franklin, a former US Marine, said that although South Africa had very strict drug control laws, heroin use was high.
South Africa also had many ports and an advanced transport network covering most of Southern and Central Africa that made distributing the drugs easy, Franklin said.
But India may be fuelling the problem more. “Unlike China, India does not have the controls and as a result, you have many pharmaceutical companies producing vast amounts of drugs that get diverted into the black market,” Franklin said. “As you walk into a chemist here in Nairobi, you can buy a tramadol for US$1 a tablet
FulHis view is supported by Peter Gastrow, a senior adviser to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime. In India, Gastrow said, there was evidence that the country remained an essential source for the importation of precursor chemicals such as ephedrine, which is used to make methamphetamine, and methaqualone, a synthetic drug that is a central nervous system depressant. …Between 20 and 40 tonnes of heroin are trafficked through East Africa annually and there are indications the amount may be higher, according to Gastrow….
“Many law enforcement officers, judges, and border control officers have been weak and compromised through bribery and corruption,” Gastrow said. “Political leadership [in Africa] on this issue has been weak.” https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3027771/how-china-
and-other-asian-countries-are-fuelling-african-drug
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-Daegu, S. Korea
2-23-20 More than 10 flights a day connect Hong Kong and Incheon Airport in Seoul, according to Airport Authority figures.https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3051952/grave-coronavirus-situation-south-korean-city-daegu-mayor
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