VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #0035/01 0091451
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 091451Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2850
INFO RUCNMER/MERCOSUR COLLECTIVE
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 1837
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 1918
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 2376
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 1738
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 1129
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 0222
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000035 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR PGOV PREL PHUM EFIN AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA'S 2008 EPHEDRINE BUBBLE MAY BE POPPED, 
BUT COCAINE STILL MOVING 
 
REF: A. 2008 BUENOS AIRES 1571 
     ¶B. 2008 BUENOS AIRES 1478 

     ¶C. 2008 ASUNCION 702 

 

¶1. (SBU) Summary:  The legal entry into Argentina of 

ephedrine bound for illicit uses appears to have slowed 

substantially by late 2008 following government decrees to 

sharply limit permitted trade in the chemical, though law 

enforcement continues to pursue up to eight metric tons of 

excess ephedrine still thought to be in the country.  On 

December 4, 2008, the GOA issued a decree setting up an 

inter-agency committee to regulate ephedrine and other 

precursor chemical imports.  A September decree had already 

prohibited the importation of ephedrine by pharmacies and 

other retailers.  Argentine law enforcement continues to 

investigate ephedrine trafficking and the related ""triple 

homicide"" of early August 2008, with the Minister of Justice 

and the head of the Drug Policy Secretariat trading blame for 

the spike in ephedrine last year.  GOA officials are also 

increasingly concerned about new aerial cocaine trafficking 

routes from Bolivia and Paraguay into northern Argentina.  As 

a GOA proposal to decriminalize personal possession of 

narcotics heads toward Congressional consideration, the 

Supreme Court is expected to decide in February the case of 

an individual detained for two days by police for minor drug 

possession, with indications that the Court will rule the 

detention inappropriate.  End Summary. 

 

Ephedrine: Officials Battle Traffic and Each Other 

--------------------------------------------- ----- 

 

¶2. (SBU) Argentina law enforcement and judicial officials 

continue to investigate individuals linked to a booming 

ephedrine trade in 2008.  Minister of Justice Anibal 

Fernandez has acknowledged that 11.5 metric tons of ephedrine 

entered Argentina in 2008 for no apparent legitimate purpose, 

and law enforcement continues to seek up to 8 metric tons 

thought to be in the country.  Prosecutors and the press have 

focused on the sudden ostentatious wealth of a few suspects 

in the trade, including some linked to Mexican trafficker 

Jesus Martinez Espinoza, arrested in Paraguay on October 4 

(ref c).  Revelations also continue from the August ""triple 

homicide"" executions of three individuals, including one 

pharmacist, Sebastian Forza, with links to illicit ephedrine 

and also to the 2007 electoral campaign of President Cristina 

Fernandez de Kirchner (to which he contributed).  Rounding 

out the sensational stories of crime related to ephedrine, 

Federal Judge Federico Faggionato Marquez reported that he 

had received threats and was likely the target of a a bomb 

planted at one of his properties on December 18 and detonated 

without injury by the police. 

 

¶3. (SBU) As reported in refs A and B, different Argentine 

authorities have cast recriminations at each other over the 

2008 ephedrine bubble. Minister Fernandez has suggested that 

the Secretariat of Planning for the Prevention of Drug Abuse 

and Drug Trafficking (Sedronar) failed to exercise control 

over the imports, in part because as an executive branch 

agency with limited resources it was incapable of doing so. 

Monica Cunaro, a prosecutor at the head of a scientific panel 

analyzing drug policy established by Minister Fernandez, has 

lambasted Sedronar for its record of approving suspect 

ephedrine imports and for weak controls over seized drugs. 

Officials at Sedronar had argued previously that Minister 

Fernandez had been slow to approve the draft decrees needed 

to give them the authority to reject suspect imports.  Prior 

to the decrees, they said, they could only approve import 

requests by legally registered businesses, whether the 

ephedrine import made sense or not.  Sedronar head Granero 

has also said publicly that Fernandez and Cunaro want him 

fired. 

 

¶4. (SBU) A December 4 decree establishing interagency control 

over ephedrine imports by Sedronar, the Ministry of Health, 

and the Ministry of Justice was thus promulgated in an 

environment in which effective cooperation between the 

agencies might be difficult.  Fortunately, a September 17, 

2008 decree banning ephedrine imports by pharmacies and other 

retailers appears to have largely halted the easy import of 

ephedrine into Argentina, perhaps forestalling the emergence 

of a permanent trafficking route through 

Argentina to Mexico and the U.S. 

 

¶5. (SBU) The Argentine public continues to follow ephedrine 

closely, particularly the investigation into the August 2008 

""triple homicide.""  On January 1, detained Argentine Luis 

Tarzia, who was alleged to have been a link between the 

Argentine pharmaceutical importers and Mexican traffickers, 

died of apparent heart disease in police custody.  Although 

no foul play has been seriously alleged, this is the second 

witness in the triple homicide to have died (the first was 

deemed a suicide in August when the associate of triple 

homicide victim Sebastian Forza fell from his apartment 

balcony). 

 

The Curious Case of the Hidden Coke 

----------------------------------- 

 

¶6. (SBU) The issue of Sedronar's control of decommissioned 

materials became tabloid fodder in December when stories 

broke that Sedronar was being investigated over the discovery 

by a garage mechanic of 8 kilos of cocaine hidden in the 

engine block and under the seat of a small truck it was 

operating, a truck seized in 2007 from a drug bust by Santa 

Fe provincial police.  Newspaper ""Critica"" went on to dissect 

Sedronar Secretary Granero's suggestion that the cocaine 

might have been left undiscovered from the 2007 bust, quoting 

Santa Fe police officials assurances that they would have 

looked everywhere in the truck after discovering the first 26 

kilos.  Critica also insisted that the cocaine found in 2008 

appeared to be packaged differently from that of the 2007 

bust. 

 

¶7. (SBU) Minister Fernandez came forward on the record to say 

he doubted any Sedronar officials were engaged in any illicit 

traffic in the cocaine, and, separately, a Ministry of 

Foreign Affairs official involved in counter-narcotics told 

poloff in mid-December that he did not find it credible that 

Sedronar officials would have knowingly taken a vehicle with 

hidden drugs to a mechanic.  That said, he could not quite 

piece together a story about the cocaine that made sense. 

Others have suggested the drugs were a plant to discredit 

Granero and Sedronar.  In the meantime, a federal judge is 

investigating the case. 

 

New Cocaine Threats 

------------------- 

 

¶8. (SBU) In the midst of close press attention over the 

growth of illicit ephedrine trade in 2008, Argentine 

authorities have also expressed concerns about evidence of an 

increase in cocaine trafficking from the Andean countries 

through Argentina to Europe.  In a briefing to Embassy 

officials on December 18, senior Gendarmeria officials said 

they were concerned over increasing use by traffickers of 

light aircraft to bring cocaine across Argentina's northern 

borders to remote landing strips.  Limited radar coverage and 

surveillance capability, they said, meant that Argentina had 

several large blind spots inits northern provinces, 

particularly a large swath spreading out from the borders of 

Santiago del Estero, 

Chaco and Santa Fe provinces.  One NGO, the Argentine 

Antidrug Association, was quoted on January 4 in newspaper 

""Perfil"" saying that there were up to 1500 clandestine 

landing strips in Argentina's northwest, up 50 percent from 

2006, and that 120 flights per day were landing in Argentina 

carrying drugs, accounting for 80 percent of the cocaine 

traffic in the country.  These figures appear speculative, 

but they may reflect a real increase in exploitation by 

narcotics traffickers.  Overall, cocaine and marijuana 

seizures were up in Argentina in 2008 over 2007. 

 

¶9. (SBU) Although acknowledging the threat of increased 

cocaine traffic, and even that this might increase with 

Bolivia's expulsion of the DEA, Argentine officials are less 

willing to admit the presence of organized cartels managing 

the trade or cocaine production in the country.  Fernandez in 

particular has disputed the idea that cartels are operating 

in the country.  Still, newspaper of record ""La Nacion,"" used 

a December 30 editorial to label 2008 the ""year of organized 

crime"" in Argentina, raising concerns both about the drug 

trade, rising violence, and also the recently approved 

legislation allowing for the repatriation of offshore money 

without detailing its provenance.  ""La Nacion"" worried that 

the move signaled a growing convergence of political and 

criminal interests in Argentina. 

 

Decriminalization Advances 

-------------------------- 

 

¶10. (SBU) GOA officials continue to advocate the idea of 

de-penalizing personal possession of narcotics, including 

marijuana and cocaine.  The proposal, advanced at several 

points in 2008 (ref A), has the backing of President 

Crisitina Fernandez de Kirchner, who argued that the 

Argentine Government needed to redirect resources toward 

pursuing trafficking and treating personal users.  The 

proposal was advanced in the scientific panel headed by 

public prosecutor Monica Cunaro and backed by Fernandez. 

Granero, several opposition legislators, catholic church 

officials and provincial officials from many regions have 

raised concerns about the proposal and the connection of drug 

use to crime increases: the top concern of the Argentine 

public according to recent polls.  Although Congress is 

beginning to seriously discuss how such a law might be 

structured, there is not yet a single government proposal for 

legislation. 

 

¶11. (SBU) A Supreme Court ruling is expected as early as 

February 2009 in a case brought by an individual detained for 

two nights by the police for possession of marijuana 

cigarettes.  The Court will consider whether police detention 

for minor possession violated the citizen's right to privacy 

under the Constitution.  One Justice, Carmen Argibay, told 

the press that she supported the decriminalization effort and 

thought that a majority of the court would do so and other 

press reports say a majority of the court favor 

non-criminalization of possession of small amounts for 

personal use.  Legal authorities are reportedly concerned 

that a judicial ruling disallowing detention for minor 

possession will cause legal confusion until the law is 

amended to better define penalties - or depenalizing - such 

possession. 

 

Comment 

------- 

 

¶12. (SBU) Unlike other bubbles popped in 2008, ephedrine of 

course does not lack for demand even now.  By tightening up 

import requirements, however, Argentina may have done enough 

to prevent its emergence as a long-term trafficking route for 

the chemical.  Addressing continued cocaine traffic through 

the country will not be so simple.  Decriminalization of 

personal possession would probably not change much the law 

enforcement dynamic for pursuing and prosecuting cocaine 

trafficking, but its effecton personal consumption in 

Argentina absent more extensive public awareness and 

treatment efforts may well be less than salutary. 

 

WAYNE 


=======================CABLE ENDS============================