CNMI a channel for ‘ice’

Saipan and Guam remain as major transshipment points for methamphetamine hydrochloride in the international illegal drug trade, particularly those exported from the Philippines and Hong Kong, with commercial air couriers and express mail services serving as a primary means of shipment.

A report released by the Department of State earlier this week said that courier and mail shipments of the drug to Guam and to the United States have typical sizes of one to four kilograms.

It said that Guam has emerged as a new market for China-produced methamphetamine, colloquially known as “ice,” due to high profit margins.

The 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report is an annual report by the State Department to Congress and describes the efforts of key countries to attack all aspects of the international drug trade in 2004.

The report came about as local and federal agencies have tagged the anti-drug campaign as one of their top priorities in the Marianas region.

According to the report, domestic production of ice in the Philippines exceeds demand. The Philippines has clandestine laboratories where chemicals illegally smuggled from China and Hong Kong are manufactured into ice.

It also said that syndicates based in China and Taiwan have established all of the Philippines’ clandestine ice labs through a network of ethnic compatriots with the necessary technical skills.

“The Philippines also serves as a transshipment point for further export of methamphetamine of foreign manufacture to Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, the United States (including Guam), and Saipan,” the report added.

“With over 36,200 kilometers of coastline and 7,000 islands, the Philippine archipelago is a drug smuggler’s paradise. Vast stretches of the Philippine coast are virtually unpatrolled and sparsely inhabited. Traffickers use shipping containers, fishing boats, and cargo ships (which off-load to smaller boats) to transport multiple hundred kilogram quantities of methamphetamine and precursor chemicals,” it said.

The report also identified Hong Kong as a major transshipment point of ice before it is exported to Guam and the United States.

The State Department said that Hong Kong still serves as a transshipment point of illegal drugs, although its role has diminished due to law enforcement efforts and cooperative relationships with the U.S. government.

“Drug traffickers continue to use Hong Kong as their base of operations, including many investors involved in international drug trafficking activity who reside in Hong Kong,” the report said.

The report disclosed that Guam has emerged as a new market for China-produced ice due to high profit margins since 2003. It noted the seizure of some 2.8 kilograms of ice on Guam in February 2003, which was shipped from Hong Kong. The center said that the shipment was bound for the United States.

The report said a joint investigation between the Hong Kong customs and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration led to the seizure. It said a similar shipment bound for the United States was seized in Hong Kong sometime in 2004.

It said insurgency groups in the Philippines have also been colluding with foreign organized drug traffickers operating in the country and are actively engaged in money laundering activities.

“The Abu Sayyaf Group, a U.S. and UN-designated foreign terrorist organization operating in extreme southwest Philippines, collects money from drug smugglers by acting as protectors for foreign trafficking syndicates,” the report said.

Sometime last month, CNMI operatives seized some 86.4 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride from a Saipan apartment where a Chinese tourist and his alleged girlfriend were staying, in what authorities consider as one of the biggest drug busts in the CNMI.

According to CNMI chief prosecutor David Hutton, the tourist has been coming into and out of Saipan to traffic ice.