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O 051635Z NOV 07
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7794
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 PRISTINA 000768 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR, EUR/SCE, DRL, INL, AND S/WCI, NSC FOR BRAUN, 
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER, OPDAT 
FOR ACKER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR PGOV KJUS KCRM EAID KDEM UNMIK KV
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: RESPONSE TO NARCOTICS AND CHEMICAL CONTROL 
SECTIONS OF 2007-2008 INCSR 
 
REF: STATE 0136780 
 
¶1. (U) Following is the submission from U.S. Office in 
Pristina for the narcotics and chemical control sections of 
this year's INCSR report. 
 
¶2. (U) SUMMARY:  Kosovo is primarily a transit point for 
heroin originating in Turkey and Afghanistan and destined for 
Western European countries, but it does have a small and 
reportedly growing domestic narcotics market.  Kosovo faces 
serious challenges in its battle against narcotics 
trafficking.  Its borders are porous, there is reported 
corruption among its Border Police and Customs officers, and 
its unique status under UNSCR 1244 as a United 
Nations-administered territory prevents it from entering into 
most bilateral, multilateral and international agreements, 
including the 1988 UN Drugs Convention.  Kosovo's final 
status is currently under negotiation, and the United States 
and the European Union intend to continue providing rule of 
law technical assistance, training and equipment donations, 
which will help Kosovo to more effectively combat narcotics 
trafficking. 
 
Status of Narcotics in Kosovo 
 
¶3. (U) Kosovo is a transit point for heroin originating in 
Turkey and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan and destined for 
Western European markets.  Narcotics traffickers capitalize 
on weak border control in Kosovo.  The Kosovo Border Police 
is a young service, lacks basic equipment, and only has a 
mandate to patrol the green border (area where there are no 
official, manned border or administrative boundary line 
gates) from two to three kilometers beyond the actual border 
and administrative boundary lines.  NATO's KFOR has roving 
teams that patrol the green border up to the actual border 
and administrative boundary lines, but traffickers easily 
take advantage of numerous passable roads leading into Kosovo 
that lack border or administrative boundary line gates. 
Moreover, narcotics interdiction is not part of KFOR's 
mandate; they seize narcotics they happen to encounter while 
performing their duties, but they do not actively investigate 
narcotics trafficking.  Border Police and Customs agents are 
susceptible to corruption.  Kosovo officials are attempting 
to tackle the problem, but United Nations Mission in Kosovo 
(UNMIK) officials believe some officers allow narcotics 
shipments to pass through the border and administrative 
boundary gates. 
 
¶4. (U) Kosovo is not a significant narcotics producer, but 
Kosovo police have found cases of small-scale marijuana 
cultivation, mostly in the form of plants mixed in with corn 
crops or cultivated in back yards.  They have also found some 
uncultivated marijuana plants growing in rural areas.  Unlike 
last year, there have been reports of seizures of large 
quantities of precursor chemicals in Kosovo.  However, 
Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) and UNMIK 
officials have found no direct evidence of narcotics refining 
laboratories. 
 
¶5. (U) Information on domestic narcotics consumption is not 
systematically gathered, but PISG and UNMIK officials agree 
that there is a growing local market and that illegal drug 
use is on the rise.  The Ministry of Health believes levels 
of narcotics consumption among teenagers and university-aged 
young adults, the primary users, are comparable to those in 
most Western European countries.  Drugs of all types, 
including heroin, are reportedly available in Kosovo. 
Cocaine cases increased in 2007, but the vast majority of 
addicts referred for treatment were heroin users. 
 
Kosovo Actions Against Drugs in 2007 
 
¶6. (U) Policy Initiatives.  The Government of Kosovo is just 
beginning to address the narcotics problem, and there is no 
national counternarcotics strategy.  The Kosovo Police 
Service (KPS) and Ministry of Health, however, reported that 
 
PRISTINA 00000768  002 OF 005 
 
 
they are advocating for creation of an inter-ministerial 
committee or working group, coordinated through the Office of 
the Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister, to draft such a 
plan.  As of October 2007, no inter-ministerial body had been 
created to address narcotics. 
 
¶7. (U) With an eye toward eventual EU accession, Kosovo sent 
a representative from the Ministry of Health to an EU 
conference on "Tackling the Drug Problem in the Western 
Balkans" in September 2006, and determined a number of 
priorities for action based on the EU Drugs Strategy 
2005-2012. The priorities included evaluation of the current 
situation, definition of a counternarcotics strategy and 
action plan and creation of implementation structures such as 
inter-ministerial working groups.  Because of the Kosovo 
budget cycle and the fact that the priorities were identified 
late in 2006, officials were unable to formally address them 
in 2007.  Individual ministries, however, pressed forward 
with counternarcotics initiatives in accordance with EU 
goals.  The Ministry of Health reported that it included in 
its strategic plan and budget request for 2008-2013 
accurately assessing the extent of the drug problem in 
Kosovo, developing a national strategy for preventing drug 
use among adolescents and youths, creating regular mechanisms 
for monitoring drug use levels among adolescents and youths, 
and increasing services to drug addicts.  Similarly, the 
Ministry of Interior Affairs reported that it is working to 
increase Kosovo's narcotics investigation capacity and help 
it meet European Partnership Agreement Program (EPP) goals by 
training counternarcotics officials, procuring technical 
equipment and strengthening inter-agency cooperation. 
 
¶8. (U) Law Enforcement Efforts.  The counternarcotics 
competency was transitioned from UNMIK to KPS in May 2006, 
and narcotics-related arrests have reportedly increased since 
the KPS took control.  From January to August 2007, the KPS 
arrested 612 people on narcotics charges and filed 221 
narcotics-related cases.  According to KPS statistics, 93 
percent of those arrested were Kosovo Albanian and four 
percent were Kosovo Serb; 96 percent were male.  In the same 
period, they confiscated 15.3 kilos of heroin, 2.2 kilos of 
cocaine, 21.7 kilos of marijuana, 61 grams of ecstasy, and 4 
kilos of other narcotic substances.  UNMIK Police statistics 
were similar.  From January through mid-October, they 
reported 251 narcotics-related cases; 94 percent of those 
arrested were Kosovo Albanians, five percent were Kosovo 
Serbs, and 96 percent were male.  They also reported the 
seizure of 11.7 kilos of heroin, 22.9 kilos of marijuana, 1.9 
kilos of cocaine and 61 hits of ecstasy. 
 
¶9. (U) KPS counternarcotics officers face many challenges. 
They lack basic equipment and resources, and undercover 
operations are complicated by the fact that they can only 
monitor mobile telephones on the Vala 900 network.  The 
Serb-controlled Mobtel mobile telephones and land lines are 
beyond their reach.  Kosovo's small size also hampers 
undercover work because communities are tight-knit and 
everyone knows who is working on counternarcotics.  The KPS 
also noted a decline in effectiveness after it decentralized 
the counternarcotics division in 2005.  They had hoped to 
return to a centralized system in 2007, but still remained 
decentralized as of October 2007.  The KPS Department of 
Organized Crime's director reported that coordination between 
the headquarters and regions improved in 2007 and that 
decentralization is less of a problem today. 
 
¶10. (U) Illicit Cultivation.  Kosovo is not a significant 
narcotics producer, but the KPS has found some evidence of 
small-scale marijuana cultivation.  According to UNMIK Police 
statistics, there were 32 cases of marijuana cultivation from 
January through mid-October, totaling 21,075 plants.  Most 
cases involved marijuana planted together with corn in rural 
areas, but there were some cases of plants cultivated in 
gardens.  There have been reports of seizures of large 
quantities of precursor chemicals in Kosovo, but PISG and 
UNMIK officials have found no direct evidence of narcotics 
 
PRISTINA 00000768  003 OF 005 
 
 
refining labs. 
 
¶11. (U) Corruption.  There have been no arrests for 
high-level narcotics-related corruption in Kosovo.  There are 
reports of corruption among Border Police and Customs 
officers, but the KPS and UNMIK Customs Service say they are 
attempting to address it.  Cases reportedly tend to involve 
officers turning a blind eye to narcotics trafficking or 
accepting bribes to allow narcotics to get through border or 
administrative boundary line gates.  KPS officials see the 
potential for problems due to the officers' low salaries and 
lack of benefits, and they believe corruption exists in the 
regional counternarcotics offices. 
 
¶12. (U) Agreements and Treaties.  Due to its unique status as 
a UN-administered province of Serbia, Kosovo is not a party 
to the 1988 UN Drug Convention or any other international 
conventions or protocols.  Its constitutional framework, 
however, calls on it to respect the principles of UN 
conventions. 
 
¶13. (U) Kosovo is unable to enter into most binding bilateral 
or multilateral agreements, but it participated in a UN 
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) meeting in Vienna as an 
observer in 2007 and it cooperates and exchanges information 
with countries in the region through informal bilateral and 
multilateral meetings.  For example, KPS counternarcotics 
officials met with their Albanian counterparts in March and 
their Macedonian counterparts in August, and they plan to 
meet with Montenegrin counternarcotics officials before the 
end of 2007.  The Ministry of Interior Affairs (MOIA) 
reported that Kosovo participated in the latest in a series 
of informal regional coordination meetings in Bucharest in 
July; it resulted in an agreement among western Balkans 
countries to cooperate in the fight against organized crime, 
including narcotics trafficking.  The MOIA also reported 
informal cooperation with regional organizations such as the 
Bucharest-based Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, or 
SECI Center. 
 
¶14. (U) Drug Flow/Transit.  Kosovo is reportedly a transit 
point for heroin from Turkey and Afghanistan, most of which 
is destined for Western European countries, including 
Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Norway and 
Sweden.  Kosovars regularly travel to these countries to 
visit relatives living in them, and UNMIK and KPS officials 
believe much of the drug trade is managed through family/clan 
networks.  Most drugs illegally enter Kosovo overland from 
neighboring countries.  Officials believe one major route is 
from Turkey, through Bulgaria and Macedonia, and another is 
also from Turkey, but through Bulgaria and Serbia.  There are 
reports of collaborative arrangements between Kosovo Serb and 
Kosovo Albanian criminal groups for drug trafficking, and 
UNMIK Police believes there is a connection between drug 
trafficking and human trafficking.  Anecdotal evidence 
suggests the drugs are broken down into smaller quantities in 
Kosovo before heading to Western Europe.  UNMIK officials 
report a lot of small movements of narcotics, such as two to 
five kilos on one person or 10 to 20 kilos in a bag on a bus. 
 The major transit points are Gjilan, Prizren and Mitrovica. 
As of October, the highest number of seizures was in Pristina 
(58) and the lowest number was in Ferizaj (17). 
 
¶15. (U) Domestic Programs.  Kosovo lacks an overall policy 
for dealing with existing and potential narcotics-related 
problems, but the PISG is increasingly aware of the dangers 
of narcotics.  The Ministries of Health and Education run 
some domestic prevention programs, and community police 
officers visit schools throughout Kosovo to educate students 
about the risks associated with drug use.  Non-governmental 
organizations assist with some of these efforts. 
 
¶16. (U) There are no reliable estimates for the number of 
drug addicts in Kosovo.  Drug treatment is provided by the 
Pristina University Hospital Psychiatry Department, but only 
one doctor and one nurse are devoted to treating drug 
 
PRISTINA 00000768  004 OF 005 
 
 
addicts.  They offer detoxification programs for motivated 
patients, but they report disappointing results due to the 
fact that many of the addicts are poor and unemployed.  There 
are no other structured drug treatment programs.  Methadone 
is not prescribed because the law does not authorize its use. 
 Some addicts receive anti-anxiety medication or 
anti-depressants to relieve withdrawal symptoms, while the 
most severe, agitated patients receive anti-psychotics.  The 
Pristina University Hospital Psychiatry Department says that, 
on average, three to four people are in in-patient treatment 
at any given time, and the overwhelming majority of them are 
heroin addicts.  The number of addicts receiving out-patient 
treatment is reportedly much higher, but the hospital 
declines to give a figure.  Other regional medical centers' 
psychiatry wards reportedly do what they can to assist drug 
addicts, but they do not devote staff to their treatment. 
 
¶17. (U) The Pristina University Hospital Psychiatry 
Department notes that the number of patients is increasing 
and it sees an urgent need for a genuine drug treatment 
program, which has more and better trained staff, offers 
individual and group therapy, and is separate from the 
psychiatric ward.  It also wants to expand its services to 
include a "maintenance program" based on a Swiss model.  It 
would medically administer narcotics to addicts who do not 
want to undergo a detoxification program in order to reduce 
the legal and social costs to the state that come from the 
addict committing crimes to finance his or her habit.  In 
October, the Pristina University Hospital Psychiatry 
Department presented a strategic plan for 2008 to 2013, 
including these goals, to the Ministry of Health; it is 
pending approval. Hospital officials consider construction of 
a separate drug treatment facility a priority because they 
believe only the most severe cases ever reach them due to a 
dual stigma of patients being labeled drug addicts and 
erroneously viewed as mentally ill after seeking treatment in 
the psychiatric ward. 
 
U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs 
 
¶18. (U) Bilateral Cooperation.  Kosovo cooperates with the 
United States on counternarcotics issues to the extent 
possible, but Kosovo's unique political status hampers 
bilateral cooperation.  Kosovo cannot legally enter into most 
bilateral, multilateral or international agreements, 
including extradition treaties, until its final status is 
resolved. 
 
¶19. (U) In 2007, the U.S. Department of Justice conducted 
extensive training for prosecutors in the new Kosovo Special 
Prosecutors Office (KSPO), which handles narcotics 
trafficking and other sensitive crimes.  Projects included 
translating a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) recognition 
manual on drugs and drug precursors and bringing an American 
drug task force prosecutor to Pristina to give the KSPO and 
KPS a two-hour presentation on narcotics prosecutions and 
informant handling.  In past years, the United States 
Government has also provided technical assistance and 
equipment donations that directly or indirectly support 
counternarcotics work in Kosovo.  The United States 
Government also funds and contributes the largest the largest 
contingent of police officers (over 200) in the UN Mission in 
Kosovo, including monitors and mentors of KPS officers 
working on counternarcotics efforts. 
 
¶20. (U) The Road Ahead.  Kosovo's final status is currently 
under negotiation, and the United States will continue to 
provide rule of law assistance to Kosovo for the foreseeable 
future.  The EU is planning a rule of law mission under the 
auspices of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). 
The U.S. is coordinating its rule of law assistance goals and 
priorities for Kosovo with the EU, and will continue to 
provide training, technical assistance and equipment, which 
directly or indirectly supports counternarcotics work, to the 
KPS and Kosovo's criminal justice sector.  The U.S. will also 
continue to contribute police officers to the civilian police 
 
PRISTINA 00000768  005 OF 005 
 
 
mission in Kosovo, including some with special 
counternarcotics skills. 
 
 
 
KAIDANOW