VZCZCXRO4432
RR RUEHFL RUEHNP
DE RUEHRO #2283/01 3041704
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 311704Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY ROME
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9339
INFO RUEHMIL/AMCONSUL MILAN 9072
RUEHFL/AMCONSUL FLORENCE 2739
RUEHNP/AMCONSUL NAPLES 2883

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ROME 002283 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR IT
SUBJECT: INSCR ITALY: 2007-2008 INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS 
CONTROL AND STRATEGY REPORT PART I, DRUGS AND CHEMICAL 
CONTROL 
 
REF: SECSTATE 136780 
 
¶I. Summary 
 
The Government of Italy (GOI) is firmly committed to the 
fight against drug trafficking domestically and 
internationally.  The Prodi government continues Italy's 
strong counternarcotics stand with capable Italian law 
enforcement agencies.  Italy is a consumer country and a 
major transit point for heroin transiting from the Middle 
East and southwest Asia through the Balkans and for cocaine 
originating from South America en route to western/central 
Europe.  Italian and Italy-based foreign organized crime 
groups are heavily involved in international drug 
trafficking.  GOI cooperation with U.S. law enforcement 
agencies continues to be exemplary.  Italy is a party to the 
1988 UN Drug Convention. 
 
II. Status of Country 
 
Italy is mainly a narcotics transit and consumption country. 
Law enforcement officials focus their efforts on heroin, 
cocaine, and hashish.  Although Italy produces some precursor 
chemicals, they are well controlled in accordance with 
international norms, and are not known to have been diverted 
to any significant extent.  Law enforcement agencies with a 
counternarcotics mandate are effective. 
 
III. Country Actions Against Drugs in 2007 
 
Policy Initiatives.  Italy continues to combat narcotics 
aggressively and effectively.  In March 2006, Italy adopted a 
tougher new drug law that eliminates distinctions between 
hard and soft drugs, increases penalties for those convicted 
of trafficking, and establishes administrative penalties for 
lesser offenses.  All forms of possession and trafficking are 
illegal but punishment depends on the severity of the 
infraction.  Stiff penalties for those convicted of 
trafficking or possessing drugs include jail sentences from 
six to 20 years and fines of over $300,000.  The law provides 
alternatives to jail time for minor infractions, including 
drug therapy, community service hours, and house arrest. 
Some center-left political parties vowed to overturn the 
legislation once elected to office in May 2006, but the Prodi 
government--a center-left coalition of eight parties--has not 
done so. Minister of Health Livia Turco issued a decree in 
April 2007 that allows medicines derived from Cannabis to be 
used in drug therapies to relieve severe and chronic pain and 
Minister of Social Solidarity Ferrero, who is designated as 
the GOI's overall drug coordinator, has publicly campaigned 
for new guidelines that raise the minimum amount of narcotics 
possession allowed, before punitive measures can be applied. 
Any proposal to change existing law would require 
consultation with other ministers (including the Justice and 
Interior Ministers), approval by the full cabinet, and a vote 
in parliament.  In late October 2007, the lower house of the 
Italian parliament began to review the government's proposal 
to amend the law. 
 
In March 2007, at a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 
meeting, the GOI proposed a pilot program for opium buyout in 
Afghanistan, where Italy maintains a significant military 
contingent, as part of ISAF, of approximately 2,300 soldiers. 
 
Also at the multilateral level, Italy has contributed an 
average of $12 million to UNODC, over the last several years, 
making it one of the largest donors to the UNODC budget. 
Italy has supported key U.S. objectives at the UN commission 
on narcotic drugs, and chairs the Dublin Group for Central 
Asia. 
 
Law Enforcement Efforts.  From January 1 to September 30, 
2007, Italian authorities seized 1,516.9 kilograms of heroin; 
2,981.1 kilograms of cocaine; 14,080.5 kilograms of hashish; 
2,835.9 kilograms of marijuana; 1,515,147 marijuana plants; 
305,195 doses and 5.8 kilograms of amphetamines; and 3,510 
doses of LSD. 
 
In November 2006, a multilateral investigation involving DEA 
Rome, the Italian National Police (INP), the Italian Guardia 
di Finanza (GdF), as well as Colombian and Spanish 
authorities, successfully dismantled a major international 
cocaine trafficking and money laundering organization 
operating in South America and Europe.  INP and GdF personnel 
arrested 34 members of this organization, significantly 
impacting the drug trafficking and money laundering 
activities of several Italian organized crime groups. 
 
In December 2006, a joint investigation between DEA Rome and 
 
ROME 00002283  002 OF 004 
 
 
the Italian Carabinieri, as well as law enforcement 
counterparts in France, Spain, German, Ecuador, and Colombia, 
culminated in the arrest of 90 members of a significant 
international drug trafficking organization responsible for 
multi-hundred kilogram cocaine shipments from South America 
to Italy.  During the investigation, over 1,200 kilograms of 
cocaine, 4,800 kilograms of hashish and weapons were seized 
in Italy and other countries.  The Carabinieri arrested 50 
individuals in Italy and seized in excess of $25 million in 
trafficker-owned assets. 
 
In January 2007, GdF officials in Trieste, Italy seized 110 
kilograms of heroin (valued at $70 million) from a truck, 
which had arrived on a ferry boat from Turkey.  In May 2007, 
a joint DEA Milan and GdF money laundering investigation 
resulted in the identification and seizure of over $6.2 
million in drug proceeds from bank accounts in the U.S. 
 
The fight against drugs is a major priority of the National 
Police, Carabinieri, and GdF counternarcotics units.  The 
Italian Central Directorate for Anti-Drug Services (DCSA) 
coordinates the counternarcotics units of the three national 
police services and directs liaison activities with DEA and 
other foreign law enforcement agencies.  Working with the 
liaison offices of the U.S. and western European countries, 
DCSA has 19 drug liaison officers in 18 countries (including 
the U.S.) that focus on major traffickers and their 
organizations.  In 2006, DCSA stationed liaison officers in 
Tehran, Iran and Tashkent, Uzbekistan; in 2007 they added 
liaison officers in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Islamabad, 
Pakistan. 
 
Investigations of international narcotics organizations often 
overlap with the investigations of Italy's traditional 
organized crime groups (e.g. the Sicilian Mafia, the 
Calabrian N'drangheta, the Naples-based Camorra, and the 
Puglia-based Sacra Corona Unita).  During a two-year 
investigation leading to a major drug bust in early 2005, 
Italian officials confirmed that a number of these organized 
crime groups were linked to drug trafficking. 
 
Additional narcotics trafficking groups include West African, 
Albanian, and other Balkan organized crime groups responsible 
for smuggling heroin into Italy; Colombian, Dominican, and 
other South American trafficking groups are involved in the 
importation of cocaine.  Italian law enforcement officials 
employ the same narcotics investigation techniques used by 
other western countries.  Adequate financial resources, money 
laundering laws, and asset seizure/forfeiture laws help 
ensure the effectiveness of these efforts. 
 
Corruption.  As a matter of government policy, Italy does not 
encourage or facilitate the illicit distribution of narcotics 
or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions. 
 We have no information that any senior official of the 
Government of Italy engages in, encourages, or facilitates 
the illicit production or distribution of such drugs or 
substances, or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug 
transactions.  Corruption exists in Italy although in the 
area of counternarcotics it rarely rises to the national 
level and it does not compromise investigations.  When a 
corrupt law enforcement officer is discovered, authorities 
take appropriate action. 
 
Agreements and Treaties.  Italy is a party to the 1961 UN 
Single Convention as amended by its 1972 Protocol, as well as 
the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the 
1988 UN Drug Convention.   Italy has signed, but has not yet 
ratified the UN Corruption Convention.  In August 2006, Italy 
ratified the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized 
Crime and its three protocols.  Italy has bilateral 
extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties with the 
U.S.  In May 2006, the U.S. and Italy signed bilateral 
instruments on extradition and mutual legal assistance to 
implement the U.S.-EU Agreements on Extradition and Mutual 
Legal Assistance signed in 2003. 
 
Cultivation Production.  There is no known large-scale 
cultivation of narcotic plants in Italy, although small-scale 
marijuana production in remote areas does exist, although 
mainly for domestic consumption.  No heroin laboratories or 
processing sites have been discovered in Italy since 1992. 
However, opium poppy grows naturally in the southern part of 
Italy, including Sicily.  It is not commercially viable due 
to the low alkaloid content.  No MDMA-Ecstasy laboratories 
have been found in Italy. 
 
Drug Flow/Transit.  Italy is a consumer country and a major 
transit point for heroin coming from southwest Asia through 
 
ROME 00002283  003 OF 004 
 
 
the Balkans enroute to western and central Europe.  A large 
percentage of all heroin seized in Italy comes via Albania. 
Albanian heroin traffickers work with Italian criminal 
organizations as transporters and suppliers of drugs.  Heroin 
is smuggled into Italy via automobiles, ferryboats and 
commercial cargo.  Albania is also a source country for 
marijuana and hashish destined for Italy. Italy maintains a 
liaison office in Albania to assist Albanians in interdicting 
narcotics originating there and destined for either Italy or 
other parts of Europe. 
 
Almost all cocaine found in Italy originates with Colombian 
and other South American criminal groups and is managed in 
Italy mainly by Calabrian-based organized crime groups. 
Multi-hundred kilogram shipments enter Italy via seaports 
concealed in commercial cargo.  Although the traditional 
Atlantic trafficking route is still in use, stepped-up 
international scrutiny and cooperation are forcing 
traffickers to use alternative avenues.  Italian officials 
have detected traffickers using transit ports in West Africa 
where drugs are off-loaded to smaller fishing vessels that 
ultimately reach Spain and other Mediterranean destinations. 
Cocaine shipments off-loaded in Spain and the Netherlands are 
eventually transported to Italy and other European countries 
by means of land vehicles.  Smaller amounts of cocaine 
consisting of grams to multi-kilogram (usually concealed in 
luggage) enter Italy via express parcels or airline couriers 
traveling from South America. 
 
Ecstasy found in Italy primarily originates in the 
Netherlands and is usually smuggled into the country by means 
of couriers utilizing commercial airlines, trains or land 
vehicles.  Italy is also used as a transit point for couriers 
smuggling Ecstasy destined for the United States.  A method 
used in the past by trafficking groups has been to provide 
thousands of Ecstasy tablets to couriers in Amsterdam 
concealed in luggage.  The couriers then travel by train or 
airline to Italy; the EU's open borders make this journey 
somewhat less risky. 
 
Hashish comes predominately from Morocco through Spain, 
entering the Iberian Peninsula (and the rest of Europe) via 
sea access points using fast boats.  As with cocaine, larger 
hashish shipments are smuggled into Spain and eventually 
transported to Italy by vehicle.  Hashish also is smuggled 
into Italy on fishing and pleasure boats from Lebanon. 
 
Catha Edulus (aka Khat) is a shrub grown in the southern part 
of Arabia and Eastern Africa, primarily in the countries of 
Yemen, Somalia, and Ethiopia.  The leaves of this plant 
contain the alkaloids cathine and cathinone (chewed for 
stimulant effects), which are controlled substances in Italy 
and the U.S.  Italy is one of several European countries used 
by East African trafficking organizations for the 
transshipment of khat to major urban areas across the U.S. 
These organizations primarily use international parcel 
delivery systems and airline passenger luggage to transport 
multi-kilogram to multi-hundred kilogram quantities of khat. 
Italian law enforcement officials continue to cooperate with 
DEA in joint investigations targeting these groups in Italy 
and the U.S. 
 
Domestic Programs/Demand Reduction.  The GOI promotes drug 
prevention programs using abstinence messages and treatment 
aimed at the full rehabilitation of drug addicts.  The 
Italian Ministry of Health funds 544 public health offices 
operated at the regional level; the Ministry of Interior 
supports 730 residential, 204 semi-residential facilities, 
and 183 ambulatories.  Of the 500,000 estimated drug addicts 
in Italy, 176,000 receive services at public agencies. 
Others either are not receiving treatment or arrange for 
treatment privately.  The Prodi government continues to 
promote more responsible use of methadone at the public 
treatment facilities.  For 2005, the Italian government 
budgeted $141 million for counternarcotics programs run by 
the health, education, and labor ministries.  Seventy-five 
percent of this amount is for regional programs and the 
remaining 25 percent is for national programs. 
 
IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs 
 
Bilateral Cooperation.  The U.S. and Italy continue to enjoy 
exemplary counternarcotics cooperation.  In January 2006, the 
Director of the Italian Central Directorate for Anti-Drug 
Services (DCSA) met with senior DEA leadership at DEA 
headquarters in Washington, DC in furtherance of bilateral 
operations.  In January 2007, DCSA hosted a working group 
conference of law enforcement counterparts from Europe, 
Africa, and the Middle East as part of the DEA's annual 
 
ROME 00002283  004 OF 004 
 
 
International Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC).  DEA and 
DCSA personnel continue to conduct intelligence-sharing and 
coordinate joint criminal investigations on a daily basis. 
Based on the October 1997 International Conference on 
Multilateral Reporting in Lisbon, Portugal, the DEA 
Headquarters Chemical Section and DCSA continue to exchange 
pre-shipment notifications for illicit drug precursor 
chemicals.  (Note: Italy has not been identified as a 
significant international producer or distributor of 
methamphetamine precursor chemicals.) 
 
During 2007, DEA continued the Drug Sample Program with the 
GOI, which consists of the analysis of seized narcotics to 
determine purity, cuttings agents, and source countries. 
From January-October 2007, DEA received approximately 72 
samples of heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy.  DEA has expanded 
this program to the countries of Slovenia, Croatia and 
Albania.  The sample collection from these countries and 
others in the Balkans is essential in determining production 
methods and trafficking trends that ultimately impact Italy. 
DEA independently conducted drug awareness programs at 
international schools in Rome and Milan.  DEA also provided 
training to Italian counterparts in the areas of asset 
forfeiture and drug law enforcement operations. 
 
The Road Ahead.  The USG will continue to work closely with 
Italian officials to break up trafficking networks into and 
through Italy as well as to enhance both countries' abilities 
to apply effective demand reduction policies.  The USG will 
also continue to work with Italy in multilateral settings 
such as the Dublin Group of countries that coordinate 
counternarcotics and UNODC policies.  END 
SPOGLI