VZCZCXRO5619
PP RUEHBI RUEHCI
DE RUEHCI #0264/01 2431300
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 311300Z AUG 07
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1664
INFO RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 0700
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 0458
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON 0310
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 0461
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 0172
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 0374
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0059
RUEABND/DEA HQ WASHDC
RHMFIUU/JIATF WEST
RUEILB/NCTC WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEIDN/DNI WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2044
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 1575
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI 0701

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000264 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DELHI PLEASE PASS DEA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR SNAR KCRM IN BG NP
SUBJECT: WEST BENGAL POLICE CONCERNED BY RISING OPIUM CULTIVATION IN 
DISTRICTS ALONG THE BANGLADESH BORDER 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  In the past three months, West Bengal Police 
have recovered 13 kilograms of opium worth USD 600,000, 
reflecting an apparent increase in illicit narcotic activity in 
the state.  According to police officials, farmers in the 
state's Nadia district, lured by the prospect of higher returns, 
have diverted approximately 50,000 acre of land to illicit poppy 
cultivation.  Although police have so far found no laboratory, a 
contact told post that poppy was being locally processed and 
trafficked to Nepal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the Northeast. 
With the poppy sowing season starting in September, law 
enforcement agencies have threatened farmers with punitive 
action if they seek to cultivate illicit poppy.  Post has not 
been able to corroborate the full extent of the acreage under 
illicit poppy cultivation but consensus among contacts clearly 
indicates an increase in illegal narcotics along the 
India-Bangladesh border.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) During a raid in early August, the Narcotics Cell of 
West Bengal Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) 
seized 4 kilogram of opium and 25 kilogram of poppy straw from a 
house in Nadia district's Tehatta block, located about 250 miles 
North of Kolkata.  CID claimed that the opium recovered could 
produce 850 grams of heroin worth USD 240,000.  The early August 
raid was part of a three-month drive by the CID that had already 
yielded 9 kilogram of opium seizures. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) On June 12, CID officers raided the house of Ganesh 
Biswas and Bijoy Biswas, residents of Satikhali village in 
Nadia, and found 2,200 gram of opium.  The police arrested the 
two and charged them under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic 
Substances (NDPS) Act.  On June 8, the CID arrested Safiqul 
Islam from the Uttar Nidhitarpara village of the neighboring 
Murshidabad district.  About 550 grams of heroin was found.  On 
May 22, the CID raided Abu Taleb Sheikh's house in Baruipara 
village, in Nadia, and seized 650 grams of opium.  On May 16, 
the police raided a hotel at Bethuadahari in Nadia and arrested 
Nabin Mondal.  The raid yielded 5,500 grams opium.  Mondal was a 
resident of Plassey, in the same district. 
 
¶4.  (U) These raids, yielding 13 kilogram of opium in recent 
months, have prompted the police to believe that Nadia, 
Murshidabad and North 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal have 
turned into fertile grounds for opium trafficking, cultivation 
and production.  In the previous year, the police arrested 200 
people just in Nadia for their role in illicit opium trade and 
cultivation.  The three districts are contiguous, located north 
of Kolkata, and all share international border with Bangladesh. 
 
¶5.  (U) The GOWB is becoming concerned about the emergence of 
these three border districts as major centers for illicit opium 
production.  The CID, along with the Border Security Force 
(BSF), has warned the local village administrators to curb 
illicit cultivation or face penal action.  Nadia district 
administration has identified four blocks - Tehatta, Karimpur, 
Kaliganj and Nakashipara - where it found that opium is being 
cultivated on a large scale.  Media reports, quoting the police 
chief of Nadia, indicated that about 50,000 acres were already 
under illicit poppy cultivation in Nadia district. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Contacts told post that the illicit cultivation in 
these districts started about five years ago.  Farmers have been 
eager to use their field for opium cultivation as the returns 
were more lucrative than conventional cash crops.  A 1.5-acre 
farm yields 1.5 kilogram of opium.  Each kilogram of opium sells 
for between USD 750 and USD 850.  The poppy sowing starts in 
September and the crop is harvested in March.  Local officials 
working with the CID are seeking to crackdown on the cultivation 
prior to the next sowing season. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The CID has offered little detail about the network 
that moves the produce from the fields.  However, carriers 
arrested so far were bound either for Nepal, via the city of 
Siliguri by bus, or for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh by train.  A 
 
KOLKATA 00000264  002 OF 002 
 
 
contact told post that women are reportedly being used as 
carriers as the Seema Sasastra Bal (SSB -- guarding the 
India-Nepal border) does not have women officers to conduct 
search and detain women carriers.  Although no processing 
laboratories have been found, law enforcement contacts indicate 
that the poppy produced in these areas are locally processed. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Comment:  The recent discovery of thousands of acres 
of farmland under illicit poppy cultivation in West Bengal comes 
as a surprise to local law enforcement and government officials. 
 Post has not been able to assess whether the reports of such 
large areas of poppy cultivation are accurate but all sources 
indicate a significant increase in illegal narcotic activity in 
West Bengal and the number of recent arrests would appear to 
substantiate the fact that illegal poppy cultivation is on the 
rise in the state.  In addition,  much of the activity is 
occurring along the porous India-Bangladesh border, where 
smuggling and illegal cross-border movement is already 
pervasive.  Also, West Bengal's northern town of Siliguri, the 
major urban center in the region, has been identified by the 
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as a 
significant transit point for narcotics smuggling, given its 
serves as a transit point between East India, the Northeast, 
Nepal, Bangladesh and the rest of India. 
JARDINE