Illegal drug sales on Internet booming

Drug trafficking goes high-tech.

The sale of illegal drugs on the Internet is booming, with dealers using private chat rooms and online pharmacies selling prescription-only drugs on the web, the United Nations drug board said yesterday.

Czech traffickers arrange drug deals at Internet cafes, Australians use courier companies’ web sites to track packaging of pills, while American dealers swap recipes for amphetamines in restricted access chat rooms.

UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) president Hamid Ghodse urged governments to fight the spread of drug trafficking on the Internet.

"Because Internet use doubles every six months and 700 million people were online at the end of 2001, greater vigilance and international cooperation are needed to prevent the Internet from turning into a worldwide web of drug trafficking and crime," Ghodse said.

"If you see the Internet as without having any jurisdiction, it is something which we need to do something about today, to protect the world community," Ghodse told journalists in Vienna.

He said the Internet gives recipes on how to make illicit drugs, how to avoid police detection, and how to protect oneself against law enforcement.

An INCB annual report said Czech authorities have discovered that illegal drug sales and purchases can be made online at Internet cafes or through cellular phones.

The report also said companies in the Netherlands were using the Internet to sell seeds and derivatives throughout the world, while authorities in Britain have found a number of websites selling marijuana, heroin, Ecstasy and cocaine.

INCB secretary Herbert Schaepe cited a licensed online pharmacy based in Thailand which sold illegal narcotic and psychotropic drugs, as well as prescription-only drugs which are legal in some countries.

Apart from drug trafficking, the Internet also aids money-laundering as drug traffickers exploit cyber banking, the report stated.

In Hong Kong, for instance, narcotics police said detecting money laundering of cash earned by drug traffickers has gotten tricky now that so many dealers are using electronic commerce and Internet banking facilities. In one case, Chinese authorities said traffickers penetrated a Customs database and electronically altered the details of a freight shipment in an attempt to avoid detection.

A joint Colombian and United States drug investigation found that traffickers had kept in touch by setting up Internet chat rooms protected by fire walls to make them impenetrable, the INCB said.

It added that drug traffickers conceal information on shipments of illicit drugs by using encrypted messages and launder drug money by electronic transfer.

The UN agency also warned that children and young people may fall victims to drug abuse as the illegal narcotics trade spreads on the Internet.

"The consequences of these developments are alarming. Young people may be drawn into drug-related crime by misinformation, propaganda or brainwashing on the part of unseen individuals whose aim is to profit from a broader drug-abusing population.

"When the approach is virtual, the warning signals that might deter a young person in the real world are minimized," the report said.

RP officials react to cyber drug trade

Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco Jr. urged the government to take steps to stave off potential problems posed by drug trafficking through the Internet.

Cuenco said the scheme would make it difficult for the police and other law enforcement agencies to combat the illegal drug trade.

"I was amazed by the new technology using the Internet. We will try to solve the problem as best we can. That poses a new dimension in this fight against dangerous drugs," he said.

Cuenco could only hope that the high-tech drug trafficking has not reached the Philippines.

Meanwhile, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) admitted its helplessness to combat the illegal drug trade and human smuggling through the Internet.

NTC director for legal affairs Silvestre Garfin cited inadequacy of enabling laws to go after the so-called cybercriminals.

"Our law is lagging behind the fast-changing technology," Garfin said.

He pointed out that the NTC charter mainly covers regulation of Internet service providers.

"Our concern mainly is on the services aspect. With regards to what they use in there, what they allow to be seen (on the web) is not within our jurisdiction," Garfin said.

He also said the NTC has no police powers to arrest so-called "cybercriminals."

Cuenco, chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, expressed serious concern over the INCB report considering that the Philippines has been categorized as the number one drug trafficker in the Asia Pacific region.

During a visit to Camp Crame in Quezon City yesterday to inspect the storage room for confiscated drugs, Cuenco said he was satisfied with the security measures for the facility.

For his part, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Leandro Mendoza hailed the Senate’s approval of the amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act lowering the amount of drug possession needed for capital punishment.

Eighteen senators voted in favor of the bill while three others — Joker Arroyo, Francis Pangilinan and Ralph Recto — abstained by walking out of the session hall to dramatize their opposition to the death penalty although they favored a comprehensive anti-drug law.

Mendoza said the PNP has been pushing for the imposition of the death penalty for persons arrested for possession of less than 200 grams of shabu as prescribed by existing laws.

Cuenco said the House is set to tackle next week its own version of the measure which lowers the requirement for capital offense to only five grams.

Cuenco also batted for stiffer penalty for law enforcers accused of planting illegal drugs on suspects. –With reports from Katherine Adraneda, Aurea Calica