Western officials: No drug smuggling in Pridnestrovie

Western officials in Moldova rule out any significant Pridnestrovian participation in drug smuggling. Nearby Odessa is said to be the main point of entry into Europe for Afghan heroin, but the transit route heads for Poland and bypasses Pridnestrovie, while Romania is supplied via the Balkans. The statements were made to American-funded Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty which published a full report on 11 October 2005 under the headline "Western Diplomats Say Reports Of Smuggling From Transdniester Likely Exaggerated".

In small Pridnestrovie (sometimes incorrectly translated as Transdniester), the drug trade actually flows the other way: From Moldova into Pridnestrovie, as the nation's Customs Patrol reports on a monthly basis. A stream of actual cases of busts and pictures of seized drugs is regularly made public by the border control's press office.

Occasionally, official involvement from Moldova is discovered. Moldova, Europe's poorest country, is often called a proto-state of thoroughly criminalized links between political groups and international drug runners, many with Muslim connections. On 14 May 2006, Pridnestrovie's border control arrested members of a Moldovan drug gang and confiscated a haul of narcotics bound for Ukraine. Among the arrested: Julian Kalos, an active-duty police officer of the Republic of Moldova whose duties were to combat narcotics traffic.

When busted, the narcotics officer of Moldova's police force attempted to avoid arrest and offered a bribe to Pridnestrovie's police who turned him down and instead documented this fact in the official police report. It is not the first time that official government employees of Moldova have been caught smuggling anything from drugs to arms to the Middle East. In Moldova, there is clear and unrefutable evidence of weapons trafficking to groups in the Middle East. In 2002 the US Government sanctioned two Moldovan companies for selling selling small arms and other military equipment to Iran. Later, an investigation put the spotlight on the transfer of huge amounts of Kalashnikov rifles and ammo to Islamic troublespots. To the extent that this Moldovan traffic goes through the territory of Pridnestrovie, authorities in Pridnestrovie have consistently arrested the offenders, irrespective of their protected status in Moldova and government ties.

In contrast, no citizens of Pridnestrovie, official or private, have ever been arrested for drug related crimes in Moldova or Ukraine. Pridnestrovie is not involved in smuggling, only in trying to stop it. In this effort, it receives no help from Moldova; financial or otherwise.

While Moldova, on the other side of the Dniester river, is fertile ground for the production of both marijuana and opium poppies, officials from Pridnestrovie (PMR) are doing everything they can to stamp out drugs within its national borders. On 12 June 2006, Pridnestrovie's police force began an eradication effort, codenamed "Operation Poppy", scheduled to conclude 31 August 2006. In the first two weeks of the operation, 45 acres of Moldovan-operated opium poppy fields were destroyed, according to anti-narcotics officer Dmitri Shamray who stated that:
" - This anti-drug campaign is directed toward detection and destruction of hemp and opium poppy, as well as the identification and arrest of those who carry out any cultivation or sale of narcotics." Shamray also reported that "in first two weeks since the beginning of the operation, in Slobozya we destroyed 45 acres of opium fields. We also confiscated 575 grams of processed marijuana and 50 g of processed opium and carried out several arrests."

Deputy foreign minister of PMR, Ruslan Slobodeniuc, adds that “accusations that drug smuggling takes place with official knowledge or approval of Pridnestrovie should not be taken seriously." [ More ]

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