US embassy cable - 04MADRID4793

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MADRID 004793 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL, EUR/WE, EUR/PGI, EUR/ERA 
JUSTICE FOR OIA AND AFMLS 
TREASURY FOR FINCEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR, KCRM, SP, EFIN 
SUBJECT: INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL STRATEGY REPORT 
2004: SPAIN 
 
REF: STATE 254401 
 
I. SUMMARY: In 2004, Spain continued its efforts to enforce 
the 1988 UN Drug Convention as well as other EU conventions 
on counter narcotics trafficking. Spanish National Police, 
the Guardia Civil and Customs Services interdicted record 
amounts of cocaine, hashish, and heroin and performed 
numerous enforcement operations throughout Spain to arrest 
distributors of synthetic drugs, such as LSD and ecstasy. 
However, officials have acknowledged that Spain continued to 
be a significant transit point and top consumer of cocaine 
and hashish in Europe. This issue prompted the newly elected 
Socialist government to restructure its drug policy 
coordination body, the National Drug Plan (PND), by assigning 
responsibility of its harm reduction unit to the Ministry of 
Health and its supply reduction unit to a new Department of 
Security within the Ministry of Interior. The GOS ranks drug 
trafficking as one of its most important law enforcement 
concerns, and has continued to maintain excellent relations 
with U.S. law enforcement. Cooperation between GOS and USG 
officials on Spain's domestic narcotic efforts and joint 
enforcement efforts in Latin America is a top policy 
objective of the new Spanish government. 
 
II. STATUS OF COUNTRY. 
 
Spain remains a principal gateway for cocaine transported 
from Latin American countries, such as Columbia and 
Venezuela, or transshipped from West Africa through Morocco. 
Spanish police continue to seize large amounts of Moroccan 
hashish along Spain's southern coast, some of which is 
trafficked by illegal immigrants. The majority of heroin that 
arrives in Spain is transported via the Balkan route from 
Turkey.  No coca is grown in Spain, and production of 
cannabis and opium is minimal. Illicit refining and 
manufacturing of drugs in Spain is also minimal although 
small-scale laboratories of synthetic drugs such as LSD are 
discovered and confiscated each year. Spain has a 
pharmaceutical industry that produces precursor chemicals. 
There is effective control of precursor shipments within 
Spain from the point of origin to destination, administered 
under the PND. Spain is a transit point to the U.S. for 
ecstasy and other synthetic drugs produced mainly in the 
Netherlands. 
 
III. COUNTRY ACTIONS AGAINST DRUGS IN 2004. 
 
POLICY INITIATIVES. Spanish policy on drugs is directed by 
the PND, which covers the years 2000 to 2008. The strategy, 
approved in 1999, expanded the scope of law enforcement 
activities, such as permitting sale of seized assets in 
advance of a conviction and allowing law enforcement to use 
informers. The strategy also outlined a system to reintegrate 
individuals who have overcome drug addictions into Spanish 
society. The strategy also targets money laundering and 
illicit commerce in chemical precursors, and calls for closer 
counter-narcotics cooperation with other European and Latin 
American countries. Following a review of the demand side of 
the PND in July 2004, the Government agreed to restructure 
the PND by placing its harm reduction unit under the 
authority of the Ministry of Health. The Ministry of Health 
was particularly concerned about drug use among school 
children following a nationwide survey it conducted on drug 
use among 25,500 Spanish children aged 14 to 18. In 
September, officials revealed that the survey showed that 
within the last twelve months 36.1% of Spanish school 
children said they had used cannabis (double the percentage 
reported in 1995); 6.8% had taken cocaine; and less than one 
percent had tried heroin. In November, a European Union 
annual report on narcotics revealed that Spain was the top 
consumer of cocaine and cannabis in Europe. On drug supply, 
the Government placed its policymaking unit in the PSD under 
the competency of a new Department of Security within the 
Ministry of Interior to coordinate its policy agenda with 
counter-narcotic enforcement agencies.  Officials have stated 
that it would consider additional revisions to the PND before 
it is comprehensively reviewed in 2008. 
 
The National Central Drug Unit coordinates counter-narcotics 
operations among various government agencies, including the 
Spanish National Guard, the Spanish National Police, and the 
Customs Service.  Their cooperation appears to function well. 
 There is no evidence of corruption of senior officials or 
their involvement in the drug trade. 
 
In 2003, Spain and Portugal signed a Treaty of Cooperation to 
prevent drug consumption and to control the illegal 
trafficking of controlled substances. The Treaty establishes 
a joint "Hispano-Portuguese Commission" to exchange 
information, to coordinate intelligence gathering and 
professional training efforts. 
 
LAW ENFORCEMENT EFFORTS 
 
Spanish officials at the Ministry of Interior reported 
October 26 that drug enforcement agencies seized 23,000 kg of 
cocaine, 223 kg of heroin, 531,000 kg of hashish, and 622,000 
units of MDMA between January and August 2004. Exact 
interdiction statistics based on comprehensive data collected 
by the Civil Guard and Spanish Customs Agency will not be 
available, however, until March 2005. 
 
The following are some notable cocaine seizures in 2004. On 
February 12, 2004, the Guardia Civil and the Spanish Customs 
Service discovered 5,735 kg of cocaine aboard the fishing 
vessel "Lugo" in Galicia. Seven Colombian nationals were 
arrested in this incident. On April 24, Spanish authorities 
interdicted a British-flagged sailing ship, the "Diaosa Maat" 
that contained 2,700 kg of cocaine. On March 27, the Spanish 
National Police interdicted a ship in the Port of Valencia 
carrying 3,280 kg of cocaine. On December 1, police officials 
discovered 3,100 kg aboard the "White Sands" shipping vessels 
in Galicia. They arrested 24 individuals including 11 
Colombian nationals. 
 
Although Spanish drug policy officials reported a decline in 
the number of interdictions of synthetic drugs, Spanish 
authorities seized large supplies of ecstasy. On July 22, 
Spanish national police seized nine kilograms of MDMA powder 
(approximately 180,000 pills) in the luggage of a Spanish 
passenger at Madrid's international airport. On September 1, 
the police arrested a Spanish passenger en route to the 
United States who was carrying 39,100 MDMA tablets at the 
Barcelona international airport. On August 18, police 
interdicted 41,000 MDMA pills carried by a Spanish passenger 
traveling to Puerto Rico. On December 1, Spanish police 
arrested a major international ecstasy dealer, Hank Romi, in 
Malaga by using information provided by the Madrid Country 
Office. 
 
On July 7, the Guardia Civil discovered laboratories in three 
apartments in Madrid containing chemical materials used to 
produce cocaine. Eleven Colombian nationals were arrested in 
connection with the incident. Authorities also arrested a 
Romanian passenger in possession of 6.3 kg of heroin. The 
Spanish National Police interdicted 70 kg of heroin in Toledo 
on July 21. 
 
Hashish trafficking appears to be particularly acute in the 
region of Catalonia and in the Costa del Sol (Sun Coast) in 
the province of Malaga. Drug enforcement officials have 
estimated that they captured 40,000 kg of hashish in drug 
raids in Barcelona, Tarragon, and Levante in 2004. 
Authorities in Malaga reported that they captured 21,813 
kilograms and arrested 490 persons for drug-related crimes in 
2004. Officials have acknowledged that hashish traffickers, 
primarily from North Africa, now use the coast of Catalonia 
more frequently than Spain's southern coast as an entry point 
for their trade because there are fewer counter-narcotic 
patrols along Catalonia's coast and along its border with 
France, where drugs can be more efficiently transported to 
other parts of Europe by road. 
 
Some notable hashish interdictions include the capture of 
3,030 kg of hashish in the Deletebre in Catalonia on March 
21. Police arrest arrested seven individuals in this 
incident.  On September 7, Spanish counter-narcotics agents 
captured 1,100 kg of hashish in Guadalquivir in Sevilla. 
Police arrested eight Spanish citizens in the incident. On 
December 3, counter-narcotics agents captured 4,100 kg of 
hashish and arrested 27 nationals of France, Romania, 
Albania, Morocco, and Algeria in a nationwide drug 
investigation. Officials determined that those arrested were 
members of a narcotics mafia based in Marseilles. 
 
AGREEMENTS AND TREATIES. Spain is a party to the 1988 UN Drug 
Convention, and all of the convention's articles are applied 
in Spain.  Spain is also a party to the 1990 Strasbourg 
Convention. Spain signed the UN Convention Against 
International Organized Crime and its protocols in 2000. A 
1970 extradition treaty and its three supplements govern 
extradition between the U.S. and Spain. The U.S.-Spain Mutual 
Legal Assistance Treaty has been in force since 1993. The 
U.S. and Spain have also signed a Customs Mutual Assistance 
Agreement. On December 17, Spain and the United States signed 
an additional MLAT on judicial assistance that will 
facilitate further mutual cooperation on drug trafficking 
cases. 
 
Spain is a party to European Conventions on Mutual Assistance 
in Criminal Matters, Extradition, the Transfer of Proceedings 
in Criminal Matters and the International Validity of 
Criminal Judgments. Spain has mutual legal assistance 
treaties or bilateral counter-narcotics agreements with most 
countries in Latin America, as well as with Morocco, Israel 
and Turkey. Spain approved March 14, 2003, the European 
Union-wide common arrest and detention order, which 
facilitates the transfer of prisoners and suspects among EU 
states. This law took effect on January 1, 2004. 
 
Spain is a member of the UNDCP major donors group and the 
Dublin group. Spain also chairs the regional Dublin group for 
Central America and Mexico.  Spain also funds programs 
through the Organization of American States' Inter-American 
Drug Abuse Control Commission. Spain pledged USD 100 million 
to support Plan Colombia in 2003 and has pledged to continue 
to support the program in the coming years.  Spanish aid is 
targeted towards institutional strengthening of police and 
judicial forces, alternative development, and demand 
reduction. Spain sponsors numerous training courses for 
police and judicial authorities in Latin America and Morocco. 
 
CULTIVATION/PRODUCTION. Coca leaf is not cultivated in Spain, 
and cannabis is grown in insignificant quantities. For 
example, on August 27, police officials arrested the owner of 
a farm in Oviedo where they located 28 mature marijuana 
plants, 250 grams of dried marijuana plants, and a small 
amount of hashish. Opium poppy is cultivated under strictly 
regulated conditions for research. Refining and manufacturing 
of cocaine and synthetic drugs is minimal, with some 
small-scale laboratories converting cocaine base to cocaine 
hydrochloride. 
 
DRUG FLOW/TRANSIT. Spain is the major gateway to Europe for 
cocaine coming from Columbia, Peru, and Ecuador. Traffickers 
exploit Spain's close historic and linguistic ties with Latin 
America and its long southern coastline to transport drugs 
for consumption in Spain or distribution in other parts of 
Europe. Maritime vessel and containerized cargo shipments 
account for the bulk of the cocaine shipped to Spain. Spain 
remains a major transit point to Europe for hashish from 
Morocco; Spain's North African enclaves of Ceuta and Mellila 
are principle points of departure. Police officials 
acknowledge that traffickers are beginning to abandon 
traditional drug trade routes between the Strait of Gibraltar 
and the coasts of Huelva, Cadiz, Malaga, and Almeria, and are 
delivering hashish and other narcotics, to points along the 
coasts of Alicante, Valencia, Castellon de la Plana and 
Barcelona, where counter-narcotic sea patrols are less 
frequent. Spain's international airports in Madrid and 
Barcelona are a transit point for passengers who intend to 
traffic ecstasy and other synthetic drugs, mainly produced in 
the Netherlands, to the United States. These couriers, 
however, are typically captured before they leave Spain or 
when they arrive in the U.S. 
 
DOMESTIC PROGRAMS. The national drug strategy identifies 
prevention as its principal priority. In that regard, PND 
continued its publicity efforts targeting Spanish youth. 
Spain's autonomous communities provide treatment programs for 
drug addicts, including methadone programs and needle 
exchanges. Prison rehabilitation programs also distribute 
methadone. The Government has also provided approximately 4.1 
million euros to assist private, non-governmental 
organizations that carry out drug prevention and 
rehabilitation programs. 
 
IV. U.S. POLICY INITIATIVES AND PROGRAMS. U.S. goals and 
objectives for Spain are focused on maintaining and 
increasing the current excellent bilateral and multilateral 
cooperation in law enforcement and demand reduction. We seek 
to promote intensified contacts between officials of both 
countries involved in counter-narcotics and related fields. 
Latin America remains an important area for counter-narcotics 
cooperation. Spanish officials are working closely with the 
Narcotics Affairs Section in Peru and Bolivia. 
 
THE ROAD AHEAD. The U.S. will continue to coordinate closely 
with Spanish counter-narcotics officials though the Madrid 
Country Office. Spain will continue to be a key player in the 
international fight against drug trafficking. 
 
V.  STATISTICAL TABLES 
 
Seizures          2001        2002        2003        2004(1) 
 
Heroin  (kg)      631         275         242         223 
Cocaine (mt)      34          16          49          23 
Hashish (mt)      514         564         727         531 
 
MDMA  (pills)     860,000     1,200,000   771,875     622,000 
 
(1)Estimates based on the October 26 testimony of Spanish 
Minister of Interior Antonio Camacho before members of the 
Spanish congress and senate of the Joint Commission for the 
Study of the Problem of Drugs in Spain. 
MANZANARES