- The young teen goes by the initial "H" and
he is the "captain" of a group of six youths who roam the streets
of Hanoi, Vietnam.
-
- H looks like he became captain of the group by virtue
of him having a sister in Canada who carries marijuana back home when she
comes to visit.
-
- Canadian grass is genuine stuff, even wealthy youths
in Hanoi can hardly buy it, says H. The six of them often have "Canadian
grass parties" at H's house. "We can smoke as much as we want
since traces of marijuana cannot be detected by urine tests," the
young boy told a Vietnamese newspaper.
-
- "Canada grass is the best marijuana in the world."
-
- Group member Hai says that after smoking Canadian grass,
it takes him four to five hours to get home although he lives just two
kilometers away by motorbike.
-
- "When I'm driving, I feel like I'm walking on clouds.
The streets are noisy, but I can't even hear the sound of my bike's horn,"
Hai says.
-
- Tuan, another group member, says whenever he smokes grass,
he cannot wait to listen to music.
-
- "After smoking, I don't want to do anything but
lie down, listen to music and talk," Tuan mouths and suddenly bursts
into tears.
-
- In the city of Suwon, South Korea prosecutors are preparing
for a huge court trial involving a drug smuggling ring that hired female
Korean students in Vancouver to carry narcotics valued at over C$316.6
million.
-
- The Suwon district attorney's office has so far booked
45 people and detained 18 of them on charges of trafficking in narcotics,
including five students they say were running the drugs.
-
- Prosecutors say the group since March 2004 approached
Korean women studying English in Vancouver to sign them up as mules for
its operation. The group offered to pay their airfare as well as W1.5 million
(about C$1,826) each time they took small quantities of drugs to Australia,
Japan and Korea.
-
- The women would carry packs of up to 1 kilogram of cocaine
or speed strapped to their torso under a maternity support belt, prosecutors
say. There are an estimated 10,000 Korean students in Vancouver.
-
- Korean media also reported that that drug smuggling through
the international mail has drastically increased this year, and many of
the culprits are foreign English teachers residing in Korea.
-
- Entering this year, Korean authorities have made 43 busts
involving attempts to smuggle drugs into the country. Twenty-seven were
through international mail, double last year's total.
-
- Police believe this is due to the popularity of Internet
"black marketing."
-
- In particular, there have been reports that English teachers
who used to smoke pot in Canada and elsewhere were driving this illicit
trade.
-
- In Taiwan, authorities there are mulling over testing
foreign workers, especially English teachers, for marijuana use before
issuing permits following reports of increased drug use.
-
- Police officers in Canada and the U.S. say the recent
spate of busts and news stories of Canadian narcotics in Asia illustrates
a growing trend where gangs are using "mules of very different varieties"
to carry drugs.
-
- "The Korean student in Vancouver who has blown her
allowance or the Japanese tourist who has melted his credit card are all
viable targets," said a Vancouver-based drug officer.
-
- "Many grow-op houses are run by Vietnamese-Canadians,
this is a trend we see and it's not a racist comment. You can judge for
yourself why B.C. bud is so hot in Vietnam today," he said.
-
- British Columbia has long been the hub of sophisticated,
high-tech marijuana nurseries capable of producing pot with nearly 30 times
the kick of what was found on the street a decade ago, according to the
Drug Enforcement Agency.
-
- And Vancouver is home to some 7,000 "grow ops"
at any time, police say with some estimates showing the criminal industry
to be worth billions and BC's biggest cash crop.
-
- In Vietnam, a recent series of massive drug operations
has caused ecstasy supplies to run dry in Hanoi forcing local young addicts
to turn to marijuana.
-
- Local media said the two most obtainable forms of marijuana
in Hanoi now are known by their street names: "Canadian grass",
which is smuggled from Canada, and "Tai Ma", meaning Great Hemp.
-
- Over the last two years, before the recent crackdown,
a gram of the so called Canadian grass cost 800,000 to 1,200,000 Dong,
or C$60 to C$91 at the local "marijuana market."
-
- But now, marijuana sales are more discreet and selling
points have moved to more secret areas in small interlacing alleys around
the city, a newspaper report said.
-
- A Canadian grass joint now costs 100,000 VND, or C$7.66.
-
- The use of non-traditional mules to carry drugs from
Canada to Asia does not perturb a veteran drug enforcement officer at the
BC-US border.
-
- "If the drugs were coming in and they got caught,
they will probably get a slap on the wrist and be sent on their way. The
risk they are taking by carrying drugs to Asia is crazy. Vietnam has the
death penalty and so have many other countries.
-
- "If they want to take the risk of long jail time
or the noose for a few thousand dollars so be it," he said.
-
- The recent spate of drug mule arrests come on the heels
of at least three major international busts involving links to Vancouver.
-
- Last month Federal agents in San Francisco raided three
medical pot clubs run by a group which has ties to Singapore and Vancouver.
-
- Authorities claim the clubs were allegedly laundering
millions of medical-marijuana dollars through a number of specialized gardening
centers catering to pot growers.
-
- "This is not a medical marijuana thing," said
a high-ranking law enforcement official who has been working on the case
for months.
-
- "This is an organized, criminal conspiracy to launder
money, to make a ton of profit utilizing sick people and the medical marijuana
laws of the state of California."
-
- Business student Van Nguyen, 27, the proprietor of the
Herbal Relief Center in San Francisco, was not arrested.
-
- In New Zealand, police said they have dismantled a huge
drug operation that was mailing cocaine from Canada to Auckland.
-
- The cocaine worth C$3.5 million was sent in 259 letters
to post office boxes around Auckland.
-
- Police believe that the drugs, which were posted from
Canada in envelopes bearing Canadian charities' logos, may have been destined
for on-shipment to Australia.
-
- In Australia, a Canadian of Iranian descent with links
to Vancouver has been charged as part of a drug sting surrounding 11 kilometres
of amphetamine imported via a US warship.
-
- Mehdi Mohammadi, carries a Canadian passport but has
been living at the Gold Coast for two years with his Australian wife.
-
- At a bail application hearing, the court heard Mohammadi
was born in Iran, carried at least two passports, and had numerous associates
across Iran, Canada and Japan.
-
- He was charged along with two American sailors. It is
alleged the trio imported more than 11 kilograms of an amphetamine-based
substance into Townsville, Australia in June this year.
-
- The drugs allegedly were onboard the USS Boxer, which
was part of a major joint military exercise between the US and Australia.
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- ©2004 The Asian Pacific Post. All rights reserved.
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- http://www.asianpacificpost.com/news/article/535.html
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