| G-Man Abroad: FBI Curbs
Drugs in Poland, Part of a Global Presence
By Andrew Curry
Special to the Christian
Science Monitor
June 25, 1997, International
Section
DATELINE: WARSAW
Looser borders
and more lenient penalties have created a haven for organized crime syndicates
and international drug traffickers in Poland since the breakup of the Soviet
bloc. The threat to the international community posed by these criminals
has spurred United States officials to cooperate with Polish authorities
in combating
crime within Poland's borders.
One of the
most significant steps toward working with the Polish police is the recent
opening of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Legal Attache, or legat,
office in Warsaw. The office is the newest of 30 FBI offices abroad, located
on six continents in cities ranging from Bonn to Bangkok.
"People can
commit crimes in Warsaw that have an impact on people in Chicago without
ever setting foot in the States. Americans have to realize that we have
an interest [in fighting crime internationally]. If not, we're creating
havens for criminals to pick and choose where they're going to start operations
from," says Steve Baczynski, a US Justice Department prosecutor in Warsaw
who advises Polish police and legislators.
The problems
of organized crime, drug smuggling, and money laundering were once virtually
unknown in Eastern Europe. "In the post-cold-war era, Poland experienced
rapid growth in organized crime - with criminal elements using new political
and economic freedoms to their benefit, victimizing Poles, Americans, and
other nationals," says Alan
Ringgold, the FBI's deputy assistant director for international relations.
"There has
been a recent dramatic growth in international crime, terrorism, and nuclear
smuggling, and the FBI has been assigned responsibility for extraterritorial
offenses involving Americans and property transcending international boundaries,"
says Mr. Ringgold.
Since Poland
has become one of Europe's main drug-transit countries, Polish and American
officials have identified drug trafficking as a key target. Traffickers
use the country as a pipeline for everything from heroin produced in Afghanistan's
Khyber Pass to Colombian cocaine - almost all of it bound for Western Europe
and
the US. "We're a good transit
country because we're in the middle of Europe, we have good train lines
and roads, open borders, and a liberal criminal code. Smugglers know we're
open and take advantage of it," says Wieslawa Tkaczyk-Sztylkowska of Poland's
Drug Affairs Bureau.
Poland has
been part of Europe's largest heroin-smuggling route since 1990. Beginning
in 1987, heroin destined for Western Europe and the US moved from the chaotic
Afghan-Pakistani border through Pakistan to Iran and then Turkey. From
there, the "Balkan route" moved drugs through Bulgaria and Romania to Yugoslavia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia and on to Italy, Austria, or Greece.
When the crisis
in the former Yugoslavia erupted, smugglers began to look for alternative
routes. According to the Interpol report on drug interdiction in Europe,
smugglers have benefited from the freer movement of goods and capital through
Eastern and Central Europe since the dissolution of the Soviet bloc. Poland
has quickly become part of a heavily traveled northern route moving heroin
from Istanbul up through Eastern Europe on its way to almost any destination
in Europe or the world.
The Cali cartel,
based in Colombia, allegedly uses Poland as one of its major local cocaine
smuggling hubs, and marijuana grown in Africa and Central Asia is also
routed through the country.
In addition
to the FBI operations, the US has taken several other steps to address
the drug- smuggling problem in Poland, including inviting Polish police
officers to the Drug Enforcement Agency's El Paso training center in Texas
and donating $ 80,000 worth of night-vision gear, drug-testing kits, and
search equipment.
Another cooperation
program addresses problems in the Polish legal system that have hampered
Polish and international efforts to curb drug smuggling and other international
crimes. At the request of the Polish parliament, the US State Department
stationed Mr. Baczynski, a veteran Justice Department prosecutor, in Warsaw
as an adviser to Polish
legislators. He is working to improve the Poland's criminal code.
"Transnational
crime is going to continue to be a problem in the 21st century," Baczynski
says. "In the US, someone running a continual criminal enterprise - a drug
kingpin - can get 25 years to life. In Poland, for the same crime, the
maximum penalty is 10 years, and you are virtually guaranteed to get off
on parole in half that time."
In addition,
Poland's drug laws - written in 1985 - still allow possession "for personal
use," an as-yet-unspecified amount that makes prosecution of smugglers
caught with drugs difficult. Baczynski's efforts contributed to the toughening
of drug laws in a criminal code released in April, though to the dismay
of Polish police,
possession of small amounts
of drugs remains legal.
Despite the
efforts of the FBI and the Polish police, a decrease in drug crimes in
Poland is not yet evident. Drug-related crimes rose 60 percent last year.
But many involved
in the US-Polish cooperative effort are hopeful. "I think that these types
of programs, trying to get the international community to talk to one another,
are steps in the right direction," Baczynski says. |
