This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 PARIS 000099 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL AND EUR/WE 
JUSTICE FOR OIA, AMFLS, AND NDDS 
TREASURY FOR FINCEN 
DEA FOR OILS AND Office of Diversion Control 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SNAR FR
SUBJECT:  2005-2006 INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL STRATEGY 
REPORT (INCSR), PART I:  DRUGS AND CHEMICAL DIVERSION 
CONTROL: FRANCE 
 
REF:  05 State 209561 
 
¶1.  This is part 1 of the INCSR submission for France.  A 
section on the French Caribbean and French Guiana follows at 
the end of this message. 
 
¶I.  SUMMARY: 
 
France is a transshipment point for drugs moving into, from 
and within Europe.  Given France's shared borders with 
trafficking conduits such as Spain, Italy, and Belgium, 
France is a natural distribution point for drugs moving 
toward North America from Europe and the Middle East. 
France's own maritime presence in the Caribbean, its 
proximity to North Africa, and its participation in the 
virtually Europe-wide Schengen open border system, 
contribute to its liability as a transit point for drugs, 
including drugs originating in South America.  France's own 
large domestic market of predominantly cannabis users is, of 
course, attractive to traffickers as well.  Specifically, in 
descending order, cannabis originating in Morocco, cocaine 
originating in South America, heroin originating in 
southwest Asia, and Ecstasy (MDMA) originating in the 
Netherlands and Belgium all find their way to France. 
Increasingly, traffickers are also using the Channel tunnel 
linking France to Great Britain as a conduit for drugs from 
mainland Europe to the UK and Ireland. With numbers of drug 
arrests and seizures increasing again in 2004 (latest 
figures), Government of France (GOF) counternarcotics 
initiatives in 2005 included continued increasing 
cooperation with neighboring countries and Morocco and 
facilitating confiscation of traffickers' assets.  France is 
a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention. 
II. STATUS OF COUNTRY 
In 2004, the number of drug offenses, seizures, and arrests 
increased more than 12% over 2003 levels, according to 
official French figures, as did the volume of seizures of 
cannabis, heroin, cocaine, crack, and amphetamines. Seizures 
of Ecstasy dropped compared to 2003 levels, as did seizures 
of methamphetamines.  The number of fatal drug overdoses 
also decreased, continuing a trend that began in 1995 (with 
the exception of a small up-tick in 2000). There were only 
69 deaths due to drug overdose in 2004, compared to 89 in 
2003, a 22% drop. 
Cannabis users are the largest group of drug users in 
France, according to official French statistics. By 
contrast, users of the next most popular drugs, heroin and 
cocaine, account for approximately four percent and two 
percent of users respectively. In 2004, authorities seized 
32% more cannabis products than in 2003, and 7% more 
cocaine.  French officials also seized 557 kg of heroin in 
2004, compared to 545 kilograms in 2003.  Ecstasy seizures 
declined to 1.893 million pills from more than 2 million in 
¶2003. 
In terms of arrests, in 2004 arrested traffickers in 
cannabis were predominantly French (87%), while traffickers 
in cocaine tended to be predominantly foreign (84%). 
Foreign traffickers made up only 25.3% of heroin 
traffickers, with Moroccans and Algerians together 
comprising nearly 50% of that total. 
III. COUNTRY ACTIONS AGAINST DRUGS IN 2005 
France continued to work hard to meet its obligations under 
the 1988 UN Drug Convention: 
POLICY INITIATIVES. France's drug control agency, the 
Mission Interministerielle de la Lutte Contre la Drogue et 
la Toxicomanie (MILDT, or the Interministerial Mission for 
the Fight Against Drugs and Drug Addiction), is the focal 
point for French national drug control policy. Created in 
1982, MILDT coordinates the 19 ministerial departments that 
have a role in establishing, implementing, and enforcing 
France's domestic drug control strategy. The French also 
participate in regional cooperation programs initiated and 
sponsored by the European Union. 
Late in 2004, France launched a five-year action plan called 
"Programme drogue et toxicomanie"  (Drug and Addiction 
Program) to reduce significantly the prevalence of drug use 
among the population and lessen the social and health damage 
caused by the use and trafficking of narcotics.  In 2005, as 
part of that plan, the French Government launched a 38 
million euro national information campaign as well as a 
program to boost France's medical treatment for cannabis and 
heroin users/addicts.  The plan also provided funding (up to 
1.2 million euros) for France's contributions to EU and UN 
counternarcotics programs in four priority areas: Central 
and Eastern Europe, Africa, Central Asia, and Latin 
America/Caribbean.  While France's bilateral 
counternarcotics programs focus on the Caribbean basin, 
special technical bilateral assistance has also been 
provided to Afghanistan through France's Development Agency 
(AFD).  Ten million euros went to training Afghan 
counternarcotics police and to fund a crop substitution 
program that will boost cotton cultivation in the provinces 
of Koundouz and Balkh. 
LAW ENFORCEMENT EFFORTS. French counternarcotics authorities 
are efficient and effective. In 2005, French authorities 
made several important seizures of narcotics. In addition, 
they dismantled fifteen France-based drug rings across 
France, with a total of 90 arrests.  French authorities 
report that France-based drug rings appear to be less and 
less tied to one product, and are also increasingly involved 
in other criminal activity such as money laundering and 
clandestine gambling.  We cite many of the larger seizures 
below (this list is not exhaustive): 
On January 3, French Customs stopped a tractor-trailer 
arriving in France from Spain.  A search revealed over 4.5 
tons of hashish within a cargo of sand.  On January 11, 
French authorities at the Belgian border seized 14 kg of 
heroin from a Spanish vehicle.  On January 17, French 
authorities seized 15 kg heroin and 1 kg cocaine from the 
luggage of two passengers as they arrived at the train 
station in Lille from Belgium.  On January 18, French 
Customs stopped a French national as he was going to leave 
Paris on a flight to Israel in possession of 16.5 kilograms 
of ecstasy pills in the double bottom of his suitcase.  On 
February 7, French Customs at Biriatou, near Spain stopped a 
truck arriving from Spain en route to Holland and seized 
over 1.2 tons of hashish concealed among a cargo of plastic 
containers.  On February 9, French Customs near the Spanish 
border seized 37 kg heroin from a vehicle with Moldovan 
registration. 
 
On March 2, the police in Strasbourg seized 7.6 kg of 
heroin, several hundreds grams of cocaine and weapons from a 
residence.  That same day, French Customs stopped a truck 
and seized over one ton of hashish destined for Holland.  On 
March 14, French Customs seized 5 kg heroin from the vehicle 
of a French national.  On March 14, French Customs stopped a 
truck arriving from Spain and seized 2.2 tons of hashish 
concealed among a cargo of plastic containers.  On March 14, 
French authorities seized over 1.4 tons of hashish following 
a routine check. On March 16, French Customs seized over 58 
kg of cocaine from a vehicle arriving from Madrid, Spain. 
On March 20, two couriers were arrested at Paris' Charles de 
Gaulle Airport in possession of 9 kg of ecstasy 
(approximately 35,920 pills).  On March 23, French Customs 
stopped a truck arriving from Spain and seized 62 kg of 
cocaine inside a sports bag hidden behind a moving wall 
inside the trailer.  Also on March 23, French Customs seized 
19.6 kilograms of ephedrine from a vehicle en route from 
Madrid to Naples, Italy.  On March 31, French Customs near 
the Spanish border stopped a truck arriving from Spain en 
route to the Netherlands.  A search resulted in the seizure 
of over 1.6 tons of hashish. 
 
On April 2, French Customs in Epinal seized 2,400 kg of 
hashish from a truck en route from Barcelona, Spain to 
Germany.  On April 28, French Customs at the port of 
Dunkerque seized approximately 117 kg of cocaine from two 
containers on a vessel originating in Surinam.  On May 20, 
French Customs seized 21 kg of heroin concealed inside a 
hidden compartment of a vehicle.  On June 9, French Customs 
in Marseille seized 3,500 kg of hashish from a sailboat in 
the port of Marseille.  On June 18, French and Spanish 
authorities concluded an investigation with nine arrests and 
the seizure of 150 kilograms of cocaine.  On June 23 and 24, 
the judiciary police of Marseille dismantled a cocaine and 
ecstasy trafficking organization based in the Marseille 
area.  The police arrested the individuals as they were 
coming back from Amsterdam, Netherlands with 4 kilograms of 
cocaine and 10,000 ecstasy pills. 
 
On October 3, in the Val de Marne area east of Paris, French 
police seized 39 kg of cocaine and arrested four people for 
selling and preparing the substance.  Also on October 3, 
police near Nice in southern France seized over 1.6 tons of 
cannabis resin in a truck en route to Italy.  In one of 
their largest single heroin seizures ever, on October 18, 
French Customs officials seized 135 kg of heroin near the 
Channel Tunnel entrance.  Officials arrested a Dutch truck 
driver who appears to have carried the narcotics in sports 
bags in the cabin of his truck.  On November 1, Interior 
Ministry officials carried out a large raid involving over 
160 officials.  The raid, in the Drome department of 
southeastern France, led to the seizure of 17.6 kg of heroin 
and yielded 43 arrests.  On December 2, French Customs 
officials at Lyon airport seized 24 kg of cocaine hidden in 
packets of dog biscuits and Chinese noodles. 
CORRUPTION. Narcotics-related corruption among French public 
officials is not a problem. The USG is not aware of any 
involvement by senior officials in the production or 
distribution of drugs or in the laundering of drugs 
proceeds. 
AGREEMENTS AND TREATIES. France is a party to the 1988 UN 
Drug Convention, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic 
Substances, and the 1961 UN Single Convention as amended by 
its 1972 Protocol. The USG and the French government have 
bilateral narcotics-related agreements in place, including a 
1971 agreement on coordinating action against illegal 
trafficking. A new extradition treaty between France and the 
U.S. entered into force in February 2002. A new mutual legal 
assistance treaty (MLAT) entered into force in 2001. The 
U.S. also has a Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement (CMAA) 
with France. France is a party to the UN Convention on 
Transnational Organized Crime and its protocols against 
migrant smuggling and trafficking in women and children. 
CULTIVATION/PRODUCTION. French authorities believe the 
cultivation and production of illicit drugs is not a problem 
in France. France cultivates opium poppies under strict 
legal controls for medical use, and produces amphetamines as 
pharmaceuticals. It reports its production of both products 
to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and 
cooperates with the DEA to monitor and control those 
products. According to authorities, there are no significant 
Ecstasy laboratories in France, although there may be some 
small kitchen labs. 
DRUG FLOW/TRANSIT. France is a transshipment point for 
illicit drugs to other European countries. France is a 
transit point for Moroccan cannabis (hashish) and South 
American cocaine destined for European markets. Most of the 
heroin consumed in or transiting France originates in 
southwest Asia (Afghanistan) and enters France via the 
Balkans after passing through Iran and Turkey. New routes 
for transporting heroin from southwest Asia to Europe are 
developing through Central Asia and Russia and through 
Belgium and the Netherlands. West African drug traffickers 
(mostly Nigerian) are also using France as a transshipment 
point for heroin and cocaine. These traffickers move heroin 
from both southwest Asia and southeast Asia (primarily 
Burma) to the United States through West Africa and France, 
with a back-haul of cocaine from South America to France 
through the United States and West Africa. Law enforcement 
officials believe these West African traffickers are 
stockpiling heroin and cocaine in Africa before shipping it 
to final destinations. There is no evidence that significant 
amounts of heroin or cocaine enter the United States from 
France. Most of the South American cocaine entering France 
comes through Spain and Portugal. However, officials are 
seeing an increase in cocaine coming directly to France from 
the French Caribbean, giving impetus to the creation of the 
Martinique Task Force-a joint effort with Spain, Colombia, 
and the UK. Most of the Ecstasy in or transiting France is 
produced in the Netherlands or Belgium. 
DOMESTIC PROGRAMS. MILDT is responsible for coordinating 
France's demand reduction programs. Drug education efforts 
target government officials, counselors, teachers, and 
medical personnel, with the objective of giving these 
opinion leaders the information they need to assist those 
endangered by drug abuse in the community. The government is 
continuing its experimental methadone treatment program. 
Although the public debate concerning decriminalizing 
cannabis use continues, the French government is opposed to 
any change in the 1970 drug law, which criminalizes usage of 
a defined list of illicit substances, including cannabis. 
Substitution treatments for addicts have saved 3,500 lives 
in less than ten years, according to French authorities; 
there are currently 85,000 persons taking Subutex in France 
now, and 25,000 on methadone. However, a health-insurance 
reform law adopted in July 2004 could have some consequences 
for clinics, according to French press.  Under the law, 
someone seeking medication treatment to combat drug 
addiction would have to sign a treatment contract with both 
a physician and his health insurance to have the state cover 
the drugs to treat their addiction (previously, one needed 
only to consult a doctor to receive a prescription). Some 
advocates warn that this requirement could discourage 
addicts in need of help, noting that adding more 
administrative measures to the process of getting help could 
increase the risk of the most susceptible turning to the 
streets to acquire the drugs.  No information is yet 
available as to whether the reform law has in fact resulted 
in significant numbers of people turning to the streets for 
these drugs.  The dire predictions by some were likely part 
of an effort to discourage any changes at all in France's 
generous social welfare arrangements, including national 
health care. 
IV. U.S. POLICY INITIATIVES AND PROGRAMS 
BILATERAL COOPERATION.  U.S. and GOF counternarcotics law 
enforcement cooperation remains excellent, with an 
established practice of information sharing.  Since October 
2001, the DEA's Paris Country Office (CO) and OCRTIS (French 
Central Narcotics Office) have been working together on an 
operation monitoring the sales of sassafras oil (a precursor 
needed in the production of Ecstasy) that has resulted in 
the seizure and/or dismantling of 25 operational, or soon-to- 
be-operational clandestine MDMA (Ecstasy) laboratories, and 
the arrests of more than 44 individuals worldwide. 
International Controlled Deliveries have resulted in 16 lab 
seizures in the United States, two in France, three in 
Germany, and two in Australia, and one each in Ireland, New 
Zealand and Spain.  OCTRIS is independently coordinating all 
controlled deliveries of sassafras oil to destinations 
within Europe without the direct involvement of the DEA. 
The Paris CO is not currently aware of the dispositions of 
the controlled deliveries coordinated directly by OCTRIS 
with other European law enforcement agencies during 2004. 
ROAD AHEAD. The United States will continue its cooperation 
with France on all counternarcotics fronts, including 
through multilateral efforts such as the Dublin Group of 
Countries Coordinating Narcotics Assistance and UNODC. 
FRENCH CARIBBEAN/FRENCH GUIANA: 
French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, the French side of 
St. Martin, and St. Barthelemy are all overseas departments 
of France and therefore subject to French law, including all 
international conventions signed by France. With the 
resources of France behind them, the French Caribbean 
Departments and French Guiana are meeting the goals and 
objectives of the 1988 UN Drug Convention. The French 
Judiciary Police, Gendarmerie, and Customs Service play a 
major role in narcotics law enforcement in France's overseas 
departments, just as they do in the rest of France. South 
American cocaine may move through the French Caribbean and 
from French Guiana to Europe, and, to a lesser extent, to 
the United States. 
 
The United States considers the broad geographical area of 
the eastern and southern Caribbean, of which the French 
Caribbean is a part, as an area of concern. A small amount 
of cannabis is cultivated in French Guiana. However, 
officials are seeing an increase in cocaine coming directly 
to France from the French Caribbean, and have therefore 
created the Martinique Task Force in response. 
 
On January 17, 2005, French authorities at Orly arrested two 
Dutch nationals arriving in Paris from Cayenne, French 
Guiana, en route to Amsterdam, Netherlands. They were found 
in possession of 4,424 grams of cocaine concealed in their 
luggage. 
 
On March 8, 2005 nearly 9 kilos of cocaine were seized by 
Charles de Gaulle airport customs from pieces of dry-clay 
pottery specially designed for that purpose.   The drug, the 
value of which has been estimated at 719,680 euros, were 
found in two parcels, each containing two pieces of pottery, 
which were sent by postal freight from French Guiana to an 
individual in the Netherlands. 
On September 28, 2005, French authorities at Orly arrested a 
French national arriving in Paris from Cayenne, French 
Guiana, en route to Amsterdam, Netherlands. He was found in 
possession of a total of 1,083 grams of cocaine packaged in 
pellets he had ingested.  He had been recruited by another 
French national who told him to contact a Surinam national 
residing in Paramaribo, who arranged for the travel and gave 
him the cocaine pellets. Once in Paris, he was to transit to 
Amsterdam where the cocaine would ultimately be delivered. 
On October 21, 2005 eight people suspected of taking part in 
the trafficking of cocaine originating in Martinique were 
arrested and 23 kg of cocaine seized at Saint-Ouen (Paris 
region).  During the arrests, which came after several weeks 
of surveillance, the drug squad seized 23 kg of cocaine and 
264,000 euros, a police source said, adding that the drug 
was destined for use in Seine-Saint-Denis at a resale value 
of 30,000 euros a kilo, according to a police source. 
On November 4, 2005, French authorities at Orly arrested a 
French national arriving in Paris from Cayenne, French 
Guiana.  He was found in possession of 600 grams of cocaine 
packaged in 48 pellets he had swallowed. 
 
On November 21, 2005, French authorities at Orly arrested 
two French nationals arriving in Paris from Saint Maarten, 
French West Indies. One was found in possession of a total 
of 4,797 grams of cocaine diluted in three rum bottles 
placed in her luggage. She stated she had been recruited 
during a trip to Morocco to transport cocaine from Saint 
Martin to Paris for an amount of money between 10,000 and 
15,000 euros. 
 
Separately, and in another French overseas territory, in 
2005, French Polynesia held its first methamphetamine trial, 
sentencing ten drug dealers to prison terms ranging from 18 
months to five years.  Investigators discovered that one man 
bought the drug in the United States and smuggled it into 
French Polynesia seven times the previous year (2004). 
 
In addition to the agreements and treaties discussed in the 
report on France, USG and Government of France (GOF) 
counternarcotics cooperation in the Caribbean is enhanced by 
a multilateral Caribbean customs mutual assistance agreement 
that provides for information sharing to enforce customs 
laws, including those relating to drug trafficking. The 
assignment of a French Navy liaison officer to the U.S. 
Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-S) at Key West, 
Florida has also enhanced law enforcement cooperation in the 
Caribbean. The USG and the GOF explored a possible 
counternarcotics maritime agreement for the Caribbean for 
several years and one was drafted in November 2001 on 
Cooperation in Suppressing Illicit Maritime and Aeronautical 
Trafficking in Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in the 
Caribbean Area. 
 
On July 15, 2005 1.5 tons of cocaine was seized from a 
sailing ship flying the Canadian flag by a French naval 
sloop.  The drugs were seized around 600 nautical miles to 
the northeast of Porto Rico, on the authority of the prefect 
of the Martinique region.  The seizure and subsequent arrest 
of three people aboard the ship were conducted "in 
coordination with the Canadian and American services who 
suspected that the ship was involved in drug trafficking," 
according to a statement issued by the prefecture. 
 
Since November 2003, the DEA's Paris Country Office (CO) has 
been working with OCRTIS (the French counternarcotics 
department within the Ministry of the Interior) and the 
British National Criminal Intelligence Service on an 
investigation of a predominantly Guyanese cocaine- 
trafficking organization. This organization had been sending 
couriers with kilo quantities of cocaine from the Caribbean 
through France to England, where the cocaine was distributed 
as crack. Approximately 30 people have been arrested in 
France, and over 40 kilos of cocaine have been seized. In 
the United States, a related violent crack/cocaine 
organization operating in Pennsylvania has been dismantled, 
with approximately 15 people having been arrested. 
 
In early 2004, France established the liaison platform and 
multinational counter-drug taskforce in Martinique which 
French Minister of the Interior Sarkozy signed along with 
his counterparts from Colombia, Spain and the United Kingdom 
in July 2003.  The taskforce is aimed at curbing the back- 
haul shipments of cocaine from South America via the French 
Antilles into Europe.  The task force brings together French 
National Police, Gendarmerie, and Customs officers alongside 
colleagues from the three other participating countries. 
The French have asked the United States to participate in 
this program.  Directors of DEA's Puerto Rico office and 
DEA's Paris Country Office met with the OCRTIS director in 
Martinique in late 2003 to arrange for a DEA liaison officer 
out of the Puerto Rico office to be assigned to the task 
force; the officer is expected to assume the post once the 
budget for the position is approved by the DEA. 
 
The multinational counter-drug taskforce's four main 
objectives are reinforcing operational capabilities, 
ensuring real coordination between all parties, enhancing 
foreign counterparts' understanding of the project, and 
implementing new law enforcement mandates assumed by the 
French Navy.  The task force presence obviates the need for 
French police officers to travel from Paris.  In addition, 
the OCRTIS officer in charge of the Martinique Task Force 
oversees the OCRTIS liaison officers serving in Central and 
South America and other Caribbean countries. 
 
In Martinique, the French inter-ministerial Drug Control 
Training Center (CIFAD) offers training in French, Spanish 
and English to officials in the Caribbean and in Central and 
South America, covering such subjects as money laundering, 
precursor chemicals, mutual legal assistance, international 
legal cooperation, coast guard training, customs valuation 
and drug control in airports. CIFAD coordinates its training 
activities with the UNDCP, the Organization of American 
States/CICAD, and individual donor nations. U.S. Customs 
officers periodically teach at CIFAD. 
 
France supports European Union initiatives to increase 
counternarcotics assistance to the Caribbean. The EU and its 
member states, the United States, and other individual and 
multinational donors are coordinating their assistance 
programs closely in the region through regular bilateral and 
multilateral discussions. The GOF participates actively in 
the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) as a 
cooperating and support nation (COSUN). 
HOFMANN