LTTE and Narcotics: Hanging on to Tiger’s Tail
(Final Part)
(Courtesy of The Island)
Moreh, as Verghese mentioned, had easy access not only to the Golden Triangle, but also to nearby Ukhrul and Senapati within India which had assumed importance as producers of exceptionally high quality cannabis (ganja) transported out in large quantities. There has always been a substantial demand for this bulkier narcotic in both India as well as the main population agglomerations of Southeast Asia and beyond. Verghese’s account makes it seem likely that the Moreh Tamils are of both Indian as well as Sri Lankan in origin. A specifically Sri Lankan link of at least some among them, however, is suggested by Davis according to whom there was a fair number of Tamils of Sri Lankan origin engaged in trade in Rangoon (among them, the grandfather of Prabhakaran), who, when expelled from Burma by Ne Win’s military regime, migrated and settled down in Manipur.
Press reports of that time provided further confirmation of the impression that the LTTE had remained active and has probably increased its commercial presence in those parts of the Southeast Asian mainland associated with the opium trade. The Bangkok Post ran a feature in October 1997 according to which (to cite extracts):
“A diplomatic source involved in a recent study of the Tamil Tigers said the evidence is overwhelming and clear. ‘The LTTE is directly involved with the Burmese regime in making and distributing heroin,’ said the source”.
“The investigation uncovered direct proof of close collaboration between Burma and the Tamil Tigers. LTTE forces are allowed to train at military bases in southern Burma. In return they supply couriers for the worldwide smuggling of heroin. In recent months, says a confidential report, Tamil drug smugglers with links to the Tamil Tigers have been arrested in Sri Lanka, India, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, the United States and Canada”.
“Last November, Indian authorities seized $71 million (2.7 billion baht) worth of drugs when they broke up a trafficking ring in southern Tamil Nadu state, home of most of India’s Tamil minority. Tamil Tiger militants and sympathizers both find sanctuary in the Indian state despite government efforts to root them out”.
“The Tamil drug smuggling network has become an integral part of Burmese drug trafficking around the world,’ said a Bangkok-based anti-narcotics officer. ‘The Tigers are not just profiting from drugs, they have made narcotics their chief battle -more important than the war in Sri Lanka” (emphasis added).
A report which appeared in The Hindu (17 May 1998) contained certain details which could well have represented more recent trends concerning the Asian drug trade. It stated, for instance:
“In recent times a steady rise in the smuggling of narcotics through Tuticorin, Tiruchendur, Ramnad and Chennai (Madras) has been reported. Of late, there has been a spurt in the smuggling of methaqualone in large quantities to Sri Lanka. These are generally shipped from Gujarat. Sri Lanka is also emerging as an important transit point for smuggling narcotics in container cargo to the Far East and the Western countries. There are indications that the smugglers have joined hands with the Sri Lankan militants and trade in arms and explosives. Reports with the Narcotics Control Bureau have indicated that South Africa has emerged as a major market for consumption of methaqualone, popularly known as ‘Mandrax’ tablets”.
On 10 February 1997 The Indian Express ran a story according to which the Sri Lanka police had seized 375kg of heroin smuggled from South India to a locality off Negombo for eventual shipment to Europe. The smugglers were suspected to have links with the LTTE.
A report by Dhar on the seizure by the Thai navy of an illegal shipment of arms belonging to the People’s Liberation Army of Manipur, provided further confirmation of the existence of close connections between Naga, Manipur, Assam and Sri Lanka Tamil rebel groups. The report also refers to rebel gunrunning through Bangladeshi ports.
According to a report carried in The Hindu of 25 June 1998, Tamil Nadu continued to serve as a transit area for heroin. Drugs were sometimes sent through Tamil Nadu to Colombo to be forwarded to other destinations. About 25kg of heroin have been seized by the NCB South Zone units from June 1996 to May 1997, and 30 persons, including seven Sri Lankan nationals, were arrested during this period. The 31 August 1998 issue of The Hindu reported that a Sri Lankan national who had booked his flights under the name of Raji was arrested at Madurai airport carrying an unusually large consignment of heroin 27kg valued at Rs 27 crores (270 million). He had travelled from Colombo to Mumbai on 27 August, and then to Ahamedabad, and was on his return journey through Mumbai and Madurai. This report pointed to the continuing importance of narcotics from the Golden Crescent for the smugglers from Sri Lanka.
All these sets of information do not necessarily indicate that the LTTE (or one of its front organisations, or a gang masquerading as an agent of the LTTE) was a major player in the outward movement of narcotics from the principal producing areas of Asia. It is, indeed, probable that such a Sri Lanka group was all along outranked by several other smuggler groups, especially those with Mongoloid associations. But what the information does suggest is that the LTTE figured among those involved in it and shared in its proceeds. The Burmese segments of the Golden Triangle alone had, by the late 1990s, an estimated 163,100 hectares under Papaver somniferum, which had the potential of producing up to 2,560 mt of raw opium, or, when refined, the equivalent of almost 500 mt of high quality heroin, valued wholesale in Western markets at a staggering $2.5 billion. It should thus be clear that even a small share of the related transactions would have represented really big money.
There are other considerations of salience to an assessment of the importance of the LTTE’s involvement in the bulk haulage of narcotics from Asian sources. One is that, among the various syndicates that were engaged in this component of the global narcotics trade in continental Southeast Asia, the LTTE was one of the very few that had its own fleet of ships. The other is that the LTTE stood out as an organization that had both the capacity as well as the need to launder the drug money, and/or to channel the earnings from the trade in narcotics to large-scale transactions in the widely dispersed clandestine markets of arms and ammunitions. Thirdly, we should note with regret that Hon. Wigneswaran, despite his intellectual stature and his suave personality, appears to be impelled by considerations of crude political propaganda when making pronouncements on this and other controversial issues such as the ‘war crimes’ alleged to have been committed by the security forces of Sri Lanka in the final phase of the ‘Eelam War’.
1 . Since the sources cited in this essay are too numerous to be listed in a newspaper article, I offer to forward such a list via e-mail to researchers who may be interested in pursuing this subject further, if contacted at geraldpeiris@yahoo.com
by G. H. Peiris
856 Viewers
