VZCZCXRO0415
RR RUEHGR
DE RUEHPO #0356/01 3092010
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 052009Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY PARAMARIBO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0023
INFO EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0012
RUEHTC/AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE 0011

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 PARAMARIBO 000356 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR NS
SUBJECT: Suriname: 2009-2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy 
Report (INCSR) Part 1, Drugs and Chemical Control 
 
REF: STATE 97230 
 
¶1. (U) Post presents its 2009-2010 International Narcotics Control 
Strategy Report (INCSR) Part I, Drugs and Chemical Control. 
 
Suriname 
 
¶I. Summary 
 
Suriname is a transit zone for South American cocaine en route to 
Europe, Africa and, to a lesser extent, the United States. The 
Government of Suriname (GOS) does not have the capacity to 
adequately control its borders. Inadequate resources, limited law 
enforcement training, the absence of a law enforcement presence in 
the interior of the country, and lack of aircraft or sufficient 
numbers of patrol boats, permit traffickers to move drug shipments 
via land, water, and air with little resistance.  In 2009, the GOS 
undertook law enforcement and legal measures to prevent, 
investigate, prosecute, and punish narcotics trafficking and 
related corruption, yielding success in several high profile cases. 
The GOS conducted Operation Koetai, an unprecedented anti-narcotics 
trafficking operation focused on the western border with Guyana. 
The GOS also cracked down on internal corruption after cocaine went 
missing from a police vault.  The international press reported on 
Suriname after Italian law enforcement dismantled a drug ring 
transshipping heroin and cocaine via Suriname and other South 
American countries to Italy.  Suriname is a party to the 1988 UN 
Drug Convention, but has not implemented legislation regarding 
precursor chemical control provisions to bring itself into full 
conformity with the Convention. 
 
II. Status of Country 
 
The GOS ability to identify, apprehend, and prosecute narcotics 
traffickers is inhibited by its chronic lack of resources, limited 
law enforcement capabilities, inadequate legislation, drug-related 
corruption of the police and military, a complicated and 
time-consuming bureaucracy, and overburdened and under-resourced 
courts.  Cocaine from South America, primarily destined for Europe, 
is transshipped through Suriname (sometimes via Africa or other 
South American countries).  Cocaine bound for the Caribbean, and 
ultimately the United States, is also transshipped through 
Suriname.  Long-standing allegations that a drugs-for-weapons trade 
takes place on Surinamese soil re-surfaced in the press when the 
Guyanese Anti-Narcotics Division (CANU) was quoted as stating that 
one kilo of cocaine trades for two Chinese AK-47s in Suriname. 
There is local production of marijuana, as well as marijuana 
smuggled into Suriname from Guyana. 
 
The GOS has no legislation controlling precursor chemicals and no 
tracking system to monitor them. This leaves the GOS unable to 
detect the diversion of precursor chemicals for drug production. 
However, in 2008, Suriname participated in a training seminar with 
Colombian counterparts and experts to learn how to identify 
precursor chemicals.  A follow-up training, with Dutch technical 
support, is planned for 2010. 
 
III. Country Actions against Drugs in 2009 
 
Policy Initiatives. The National Anti-Drug Council (NAR) and its 
Executive Office renewed its mandate from the Ministry of Health in 
June 2008 to continue to coordinate implementation of the National 
Drug Master Plan (2006-2010) that covers both supply and demand 
reduction and includes calls for new legislation to control 
precursor chemicals.  The National Drug Master Plan is supported by 
both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice and Police. 
Since 2007, the GOS has broadened support by involving 
Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and civil society in the 
implementation of the plan, and incorporating business 
associations, religious groups, and the NAR's regional sites.  The 
GOS has made progress in the implementation of the Master Plan, 
which has four main pillars.  The first, national coordination and 
monitoring of the implementation of the National Drug Master Plan, 
showed significant progress with the strengthening of the NAR and 
its Executive Office.  The NAR receives its operational budget from 
the Ministry of Health's central budget and does not have an annual 
programmatic budget.  The Master Plan's second pillar is the 
development and implementation of relevant legislation with regard 
to the fight against drugs and drug-related crime.  The GOS has not 
yet started to draft the legislation on precursor chemicals, but 
its request to the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission 
(CICAD) of the Organization of American States (OAS) for technical 
assistance and training for drafting the precursor chemicals 
legislation was approved in 2009 and will commence in 2010.  Draft 
legislation on terrorist financing, which is required for Suriname 
 
PARAMARIBO 00000356  002 OF 006 
 
 
to join the Egmont Group, remains pending.  Pillar three is the 
fight against drug trafficking and maintenance of law and order. 
Progress was made in this area in 2009 when the Unusual 
Transactions Reporting Center (MOT/FIU) resolved its staffing 
shortage and the government created a Financial Investigation Team 
(FOT).  The fourth pillar is drug demand reduction and 
strengthening of addiction care.  The NAR reported significant 
progress in this area, especially through a European Union-funded 
demand reduction program which was completed in 2007.  In 2009, the 
NAR conducted its first evaluation of treatment centers after the 
2007 adoption by the Ministry of Health of minimum standards.  In 
2010, the NAR will draft the National Drug Master Plan (2011-2015) 
using data from a 2005 Rapid Situation Assessment (RSA), a 2004 
school survey, and a 2007 household survey to inform the process. 
 
In January 2009, the media reported a new policy that all parole 
requests for offenders in serious drug cases would be denied.  A 
former top military official convicted of MDMA (Ecstasy) production 
and export filed suit against the GOS after being turned down for 
parole in 2009 after serving five years of his sentence. 
 
The NAR is working within the CICAD and European Union and Latin 
America and the Caribbean (EU-LAC) collaboration framework to set 
up a Drug Treatment Court, which would specialize in hearing 
defendants charged with drug use and drug-related criminal 
offenses.  The judge would have the authority to have addicts 
undergo mandatory rehabilitation rather than enter the regular 
prison system.  In October 2009, The Ministry of Justice and Police 
launched a two-day exchange workshop with Paramaribo's partner city 
(Ghent, Belgium) to engage in the planning.  The pilot program for 
the Drug Treatment Court is slated to begin in 2010 after 
government amends the existing legal structure. 
 
 
 
Law Enforcement Efforts.  Through October 30, 2009, the GOS seized 
238.2 kg of cocaine, 158.5 kg of cannabis, 4,711.2 grams of hash, 
and 5.8 grams of heroin.  This was an increase in seizures for all 
drug types, compared to 2008 numbers.  In 2009, no MDMA tablets 
were seized, in comparison to 785 tablets in 2008.  As of October 
30, 454 people were arrested for drug-related offenses of which 323 
cases were sent to the Office of the Attorney General for 
prosecution.  As of November 5, 293 people had been prosecuted for 
drug-related offenses.    The GOS Ministry of Justice and Police 
and law enforcement institutions' continued targeting of large 
trafficking rings (with direct links to South American, African, 
and European rings) and its expanding cooperation with regional and 
international partners could yield improved results.  The 
continuing GOS crackdown against clandestine airstrips within 
Suriname has continued to force traffickers to develop new routes 
and methods for transiting drugs.  The drug trafficking 
organizations (DTOs) have moved their landing strips further into 
the interior and changed trafficking tactics, such as using one 
landing strip for a very short period of time and then moving to 
another strip. In October 2009, police arrested seven suspects at 
an illegal landing strip that were allegedly preparing for the 
landing of an aircraft bearing illicit drugs.    The Johan Adolf 
Pengel International (JAP) Airport has plans in place to introduce 
radar capabilities in the near future.  There is an increased 
prevalence in the use of go-fast boats to transport narcotics from 
Venezuela and Guyana.   The GOS performed Operation Koetai in the 
second half of 2009, which focused on narcotics interdiction on 
Suriname's western border with Guyana.  This operation has resulted 
in 16.6 kilos of cocaine seized and 1 arrest as of October 30, 
¶2009.  Narcotics traffickers attempting to bypass Operation Koetai 
landed their boats in Saramacca, but were also apprehended by the 
police.  The police arrested seven individuals and seized 77.5 
kilos of cocaine in this bust.  Operation Koetai also resulted in 
an increase in the cost per kilo of cocaine from $3500 to $7000 
kilo on the Surinamese market.  On the other hand, the inability of 
traffickers to transship cocaine out of Suriname in 2009 led to 
three-year lows in the cost of cocaine per 5/gram unit, and there 
was increased public concern about an anecdotal increase in local 
cocaine use, especially among youth. 
 
The bulk of the cocaine movement out of Suriname to Europe and 
Africa is via commercial sea cargo.  At present the government has 
no operating Coast Guard and has limited maritime capability to 
interdict drug traffickers at sea; however, the Minister of Defense 
remained committed to the formation of a new Coast Guard.  The 
Joint Operations Center, a precursor to the Coast Guard, is 
operational.  The Joint Operations Center includes the stakeholders 
that collaborate on joint maritime activities:  Ministry of 
Defense; Ministry of Justice and Police; Ministry of 
Transportation, Communication, and Tourism (Maritime Authority of 
 
PARAMARIBO 00000356  003 OF 006 
 
 
Suriname); Attorney General's Office; Ministry of Finance 
(Customs); and Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and 
Fisheries.  The GOS purchased two new boats for maritime 
operations, one of which was delivered and became operational in 
¶2009.  There is no GOS radar for tracking movements at sea. 
 
The use of foodstuffs to move narcotics out of Suriname through the 
JAP Airport continued, with cocaine discovered in chocolates, 
cassava bread, chili peppers, beer and coconut milk cans, among 
other food items.  The trend of Surinamese performance groups 
trafficking narcotics to the Netherlands also continued in 2009, 
and reaction by the Dutch government led to the banning of members 
of one performance group from entry to the Netherlands for three 
years.  Cocaine was hidden in parts of planes bound for the 
Netherlands, although sometimes the cocaine was not offloaded and 
was confiscated upon the aircraft's return to Suriname.  The media 
reported that this practice could, in some cases, have resulted in 
life-threatening situations for passengers and crew.  The 2008 
trend of African nationals arrested in Suriname continued in 2009, 
carrying narcotics intended for Africa (transported via the 
Netherlands).  The Philippines Drug Council announced that Nigerian 
drug organizations were using Filipinos to traffick drugs out of 
Suriname.  Nationalities arrested in Suriname in 2009 for 
drug-related offenses included Filipinos, Spaniards, Dutch, 
Belgians, British, Brazilians, Ghanaians, Colombians, Venezuelans, 
and Nigerians. 
 
As of October 2009, GOS law enforcement agencies arrested 49 drug 
couriers who had ingested cocaine pellets. In 2009, law enforcement 
officials noted a continued decrease in the number of drug mules 
arrested from 99 in 2007, to 66 in 2008, to 49 in 2009. One 
Surinamese drug mule was arrested at the airport in the Netherlands 
after having swallowed 182 cocaine capsules, weighing nearly 2.2 
kilograms.  In June 2008, the GOS stepped up its enforcement 
efforts at the JAP airport by installing luggage scanning 
equipment.  In 2009, the GOS installed a urine testing machine at 
the airport to more easily identify suspected drug mules.  In 2009, 
three dogs were trained by the Dutch to identify narcotics at the 
airport. Drug mules who evaded detection in Suriname were 
subsequently arrested at the airport in Amsterdam, which, in 2004, 
implemented a 100 percent inspection of all passengers and baggage 
arriving on all inbound flights from Suriname.  Although the 
majority of the narcotics trafficking out of Suriname via the 
airport occurs mainly on the Netherlands-bound flights, drugs were 
also intercepted on U.S.-bound flights in Trinidad and Tobago, 
Jamaica, and the United States.  For example, drugs were discovered 
on a U.S.-bound Surinam Airways flight during U.S. customs 
procedures in Aruba. 
 
Corruption. As a matter of policy, no senior GOS official, nor the 
GOS, encourages or facilitates illicit drug production or 
distribution, nor is it involved in laundering the proceeds of the 
sale of illicit drugs, and does not discourage the investigation or 
prosecution of such acts. Public corruption by military and police 
who were possibly influenced and infiltrated by narcotraffickers is 
believed to have played some role in limiting the number of 
seizures made compared to the amount of illegal narcotics that is 
reportedly flowing through Suriname. Public corruption also appears 
to affect the prison system, where there are continued claims by 
non-governmental organizations of drug use and drug sales.  Two 
family members of a government official were arrested in 2009 for 
smuggling drugs into a prison.  Media reports and rumors of money 
laundering, drug trafficking, and associated criminal activity 
involving current and former government and military officials 
continue to circulate.  There were ten arrests of government 
officials in drug-related cases as of October 30, 2009.  Several 
police officers were prosecuted for drug-related offenses.  Public 
officials arrested for narcotics-related corruption are prosecuted 
under corruption laws; there is no specialized legislation for 
narcotics-related corruption. 
 
The GOS demonstrated a willingness in 2009 to undertake law 
enforcement and legal measures to prevent, investigate, prosecute, 
and punish public corruption.  In the highest profile case of the 
year, 93 kilos of cocaine went missing from the vault at the Arrest 
Team's headquarters.  Several GOS senior officials, including the 
Vice President and the Minister of Justice and Police, made 
immediate public statements on the case, characterizing the matter 
as serious. Members of the special units of the police were 
subjected to polygraph tests.  The Personnel Investigation 
Department (OPZ) suspended members of the Arrest Team and conducted 
an investigation of the case.  Members of the Arrest Team put on 
mandatory leave following the investigation threatened to sue the 
government for not following proper procedures, and the officers 
were transferred to other departments within the police corps.  The 
 
PARAMARIBO 00000356  004 OF 006 
 
 
Minister announced the command of the Arrest Team would be 
replaced.  The OPZ concluded the internal investigation and 
submitted the report to the Attorney General's Office.  The 
decision of that office on whether or not to prosecute was pending 
as of October 30, 2009. The Ministry of Justice and Police formally 
requested United States assistance in investigating the 
disappearance of the drugs and re-establishing the integrity of the 
Suriname Police Force. 
 
In 2009, members of the anti-narcotics brigade arrested one of 
their colleagues in a drug raid.  The OPZ completed the 
investigation into the 2008 killing by a police officer of another 
(off-duty) police officer, who had 51 kilos of cocaine in his 
vehicle.  The case was forwarded to the Attorney General's Office, 
which decided to prosecute the police shooter.  As of October 30, 
the police shooter had been released from custody pending the 
results of the ongoing trial. 
 
Agreements and Treaties. Suriname is party to the 1961 UN Single 
Convention as amended by the 1972 Protocol, and the 1971 UN 
Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Suriname is also a party to 
the 1988 UN Drug Convention and has accordingly passed legislation 
that conforms to a majority of the Convention's articles, but it 
has failed to pass legislation complying with precursor chemical 
control provisions. 
 
Suriname is a party to the UN Convention against Transnational 
Organized Crime and its protocols against Trafficking in Persons 
and Migrant Smuggling. Suriname is party to the Inter-American 
Convention against Corruption and Migrant Smuggling and the 
Inter-American Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters 
but not the Optional Protocol thereto. Since 1976, the GOS has been 
sharing narcotics information with the Netherlands pursuant to a 
Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement. The two countries intensified 
their cooperation to fight drug trafficking with agreements between 
their police forces and their offices of the Attorney General. In 
August 1999, a comprehensive six-part, bilateral, maritime 
counternarcotics enforcement agreement was entered into with the 
U.S. The U.S.-Netherlands Extradition Treaty of 1904 is applicable 
to Suriname, but current Suriname law prohibits the extradition of 
its nationals. Suriname did, however, deport foreign national 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) members to Colombia 
in 2008 and is cooperating with regional counterparts on ongoing 
Drugs-for-Arms network investigations. In 2009, the Council of 
Ministers approved the draft legislation for Suriname to join the 
CARICOM Arrest Warrant Treaty and forwarded it to the State Council 
for review.  During 2009, the U.S. made formal requests for 
assistance to Suriname. Suriname has worked with the in-country 
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) office and has provided 
information and evidence to assist U.S. investigations and trials. 
 
Officials from Suriname, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba met in 
June 2008. The three countries share intelligence on judicial and 
criminal matters and evaluated and expanded this cooperation. In 
May 2008, Suriname and Guyana made the "Nieuw Nickerie 
Declaration," to combat transnational crime between the countries. 
The declaration said they had agreed to advance cooperation 
regarding narcotics, money laundering, trafficking in persons and 
weapons. Suriname has also signed bilateral agreements to combat 
drug trafficking with neighboring countries Brazil, Venezuela and 
Colombia. Brazil and Colombia have cooperated with Suriname on 
specific drug-related cases. Suriname is an active member of CICAD, 
to which it reports regularly. Suriname publicly announced its 
candidacy for the CICAD vice chair position in 2009-2010 in late 
¶2008. Suriname has signed agreements with the United States, 
Netherlands, Brazil, and France that permit law enforcement 
attach????s to work with local police. 
 
Cultivation and Production. There is local cultivation of cannabis 
in Suriname but there is little data on the amount under 
cultivation or evidence that marijuana is exported in significant 
quantities.  There has been MDMA production in Suriname in past 
years. 
 
Drug Flow/Transit. Suriname's sparsely populated coastal region and 
isolated jungle interior, together with weak border controls and 
infrastructure, make narcotics detection and interdiction efforts 
difficult. USG analysis indicates that drug traffickers use very 
remote locations for delivery and temporary storage of narcotics. 
There are also indications that the illicit drug flights are 
increasingly moving to Guyana. Narcotics shipments are then 
transported by go-fast boat to Nickerie District, Suriname. Cocaine 
shipments that enter Suriname via small aircraft land on 
clandestine airstrips that are cut into the dense jungle interior 
and/or sparsely populated coastal districts. The GOS has worked to 
 
PARAMARIBO 00000356  005 OF 006 
 
 
combat this flow by monitoring the illegal cross-border traffic 
near the city of Nieuw Nickerie and by destroying several 
clandestine airstrips in 2007 and 2008. European-produced MDMA is 
transported via commercial airline flights from the Netherlands to 
Suriname. There have been reports of marijuana smuggled into 
Suriname from Guyana, and heroin transshipped through Suriname en 
route to Europe. 
 
Cocaine from South America, primarily destined for Europe, is 
transshipped through Suriname (sometimes via Africa or other South 
American countries).  Cocaine bound for the Caribbean, and 
ultimately the United States, is also transshipped through 
Suriname.  Drugs exit Suriname via numerous means including 
commercial air flights, drug couriers, and concealed in small 
private planes.  In 2009, Italian law enforcement dismantled a drug 
ring transshipping heroin and cocaine via Suriname and other South 
American countries to Italy.  The majority of cocaine on commercial 
air flights is bound for Europe, but there have also been several 
cases of cocaine identified on U.S.-bound flights. The bulk of the 
cocaine movement out of Suriname to Europe and Africa is via 
commercial sea cargo. Traffickers move hundreds of kilograms, 
concealing it either in cargo, containers, or in the vessels. Small 
fishing vessels also carry drugs out to sea and transfer them to 
large freight vessels in international waters. Well-concealed 
cocaine is off-loaded at the destination port as legitimate cargo, 
while kilograms in block form, packaged in bundles of 50 to 100 
kilograms, are off-loaded in international waters to smaller boats 
prior to entering port. The government has no operating Coast Guard 
or limited maritime capability to interdict drug traffickers at 
sea. 
 
Domestic Programs/Demand Reduction. The NAR conducts annual 
activities surrounding the International Day of Drugs, with a 
specific focus on youth and at-risk groups.  In 2009, this outreach 
included a film festival and other activities for youth.  Special 
outreach was made to musical groups and brass bands after several 
cases of youth in performance groups being caught trafficking 
narcotics to the Netherlands.  In 2008 the NAR established one new 
regional site in Saramacca for anti-drug activities, bringing the 
number of its active sites to three across the country. These sites 
were used as a base for data collection, analysis and 
recommendations based on trends, and drug awareness activities for 
the local communities.  In 2006-2007, the NAR established a youth 
commission that conducts peer advising at fairs.  In 2010, the NAR 
plans to continue to focus its efforts on raising drug awareness, 
creating self-help groups, and partnering with local stakeholders 
on youth and community outreach initiatives.  The NAR is active 
with planning for a 2010 pilot program for a Drug Treatment Court, 
which would hear defendants with drug-use related crimes.  There is 
one government detoxification center which is free; other treatment 
centers are run by non-governmental organizations. 
 
The Bureau of Alcohol and Drugs (BAD) reported in mid-2009 an 
increase in cocaine use in Suriname but based this on anecdotal 
evidence.  A 2007 CICAD-funded general population (household) 
survey's results were published in February 2009, and the data will 
be used to formulate new demand reduction policies.  The survey, 
which measured alcohol, cigarette, and drug use in the general 
public , showed that the drugs of choice are alcohol and 
cigarettes, and that less than one percent of respondents had used 
cocaine in the month prior to the survey (except in the Districts 
of Commewijne and Marowijne, where the percentage was 1.3 percent). 
 
 
IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs 
 
Policy Initiatives. The United States' focus is on strengthening 
the GOS law enforcement and judicial institutions and their 
capabilities to detect, interdict, and prosecute narcotics 
trafficking activities. 
 
Bilateral Cooperation. In 2008, the GOS and Guyana made the "Nieuw 
Nickerie Declaration" to advance cooperation on transnational crime 
as a follow-on to the 2006 "Paramaribo Declaration," which provided 
a framework to establish an intelligence-sharing network, 
coordinate, and execute sting operations, destroy clandestine 
airstrips and tackle money laundering. In December 2008, the 
Ministry of Justice and Police co-hosted (with the Embassy of the 
Republic of France in Suriname) a regional counternarcotics and 
money laundering seminar for law enforcement and police attaches. 
 
In 2009, the United States provided training and material support 
to several elements of the national police to strengthen their 
counternarcotics capabilities.  The DEA office in Suriname provided 
counternarcotics training to several units of the Korps Politie 
 
PARAMARIBO 00000356  006 OF 006 
 
 
Suriname (KPS), Suriname's national police force.  DEA also 
arranged for some KPS officers to take part in a larger U.S. 
military provided training course on interdiction, and provided 
operational assistance for the course.  In 2009, DEA also provided 
technical assistance to the KPS in narcotics and money laundering 
and investigations.  The "Paramaribo Declaration" set forth several 
tenants of understanding among the participating countries, and in 
2009 the DEA took actions to enhance the cooperative actions 
between the participating countries.  A DOD Tactical Analysis Team 
(TAT) became operational in Suriname in November 2008, providing 
additional technical support. 
 
The Road Ahead. The United States encourages the GOS efforts to 
continue to pursue major narcotics traffickers and to dismantle 
their organizations, and to build on and strengthen its regional 
and international cooperation to date. The GOS should continue to 
strengthen its focus on port security, specifically seaports, which 
are seen as the primary conduits for large shipments of narcotics 
exiting Suriname. A concerted effort by the GOS to increase the 
number of police and military boats, and to create an operational 
Coast Guard, capable of patrolling the border rivers and coastal 
areas would also likely enhance counternarcotics efforts. 
Similarly, in order to achieve greater results, the USG encourages 
the GOS to continue to engage in capacity-building measures of its 
counternarcotics-focused units as well as to monitor and protect 
its porous borders and vast interior with a radar detection system 
and adequate air support. With regard to enhancing its interdiction 
at the principal airport and border crossings, the GOS should 
invest in a passport scanning/electronic database system. 
BELL