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R 030546Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 3092
INFO AMEMBASSY BEIJING 
AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 
AMEMBASSY SEOUL 
AMEMBASSY TOKYO

UNCLAS ULAANBAATAR 000318 
 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL EAID SOCI MG
SUBJECT: Mongolia INCSR Draft Submission 
 
¶I. Summary 
 
(U) Although small in scale, the production, sales, trafficking and 
abuse of narcotics is on the rise. The primary narcotics of choice 
are hashish and cannabis. More impoverished people are apt to use 
commercially available inhalants and glues. In addition, many 
patients hospitalized for traumas or other painful conditions become 
addicted to morphine through prescriptions for excessive doses of 
the painkiller. Groups particularly vulnerable to narcotics include 
children and young adults from upper-middle class families as well 
as women employed or exploited in night clubs and underground 
brothels. Narcotics are most prevalent in Ulaanbaatar as well as 
cities border Russia and China, such as Darkhan and Zamyn-Uud 
respectively. 
 
(U) Mongolia is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention.  Although 
Mongolia launched the National Anti-Drug, Anti-Narcotics Program 
(NADANP) from 2005-2008, progress was very modest.  Interagency 
cooperation increased and customs procedures for drug interdiction 
continue to improve.  Nevertheless, capacity and budgeting remains 
insufficient for law enforcement and customs agencies.  Officers by 
and large remain dedicated to fighting drug trafficking and abuse. 
Prevention and treatment programs for narcotics are poor.  What 
therapy drug addicts do receive is generally based upon the 
therapies applied to abusers of alcohol.  There are only two 
practicing doctors nationwide with specialization in narcotics 
addiction.  Combined with the inaccessibility of appropriate 
treatment options, the lack of public awareness campaigns and the 
severe social stigma regarding drug use leads very few patients to 
check in voluntarily for treatment.  As a result, more indicted 
criminals checked in for treatment in the Maanit Prison Hospital's 
treatment center than did free citizens at the National 
Psychopathology and Addictology Center in 2009 to date. 
 
II. Status of Country 
 
(U) The level of domestic narcotics production is believed to be 
low.  The most common local source is naturally growing cannabis 
plants in the northern provinces.  Blown on southerly winds, their 
spores incrementally approach the latitudes of Ulaanbaatar with each 
year. Another source is drug exporters residing in Russia and China. 
Smugglers use Mongolia both as a destination and as a transit 
route. 
 
III. Country Actions against Drugs in 2009 
 
(U) Policy Initiatives: The National Council carried out the 
National Anti-Drug, Anti-Narcotics Program from 2005 to 2008.  Led 
by the National Police, the goals of the council included the 
coordination of anti-drug policies among administrative bodies, 
legal reviews, studies of the circumstances of drug related crimes, 
prevention campaigns for minors and the supply of necessary 
equipment and trained staff to the drug identification labs. 
 
(U) As a result, a new law was implemented, providing for the 
monitoring of narcotic flows and the psychological assistance of 
addicts.  In addition, cooperation between government law 
enforcement, intelligence, customs and border patrol agencies 
reportedly improved.  Under the impetus of a new customs law in 
2008, the Mongolian Customs General Administration (MCGA) is 
reforming its risk assessment techniques.  With its nationwide 
network to gather and analyze data and information shared among 
agencies, the MCGA is implementing a risk management program 
beginning this year.  The goal is to focus more effectively on 
suspicious customs declarations as recommended in World Customs 
Organization guidelines.  This is in conjunction with an IT 
modernization project currently underway.  The MCGA is also training 
dogs for drug sniffing and deploying the hounds to border crossings, 
airports and post offices. 
 
(U) Despite these improvements, the NADANP has lapsed and remains in 
limbo.  Government-NGO coordination is insufficient.  Then-Prime 
Minister Bayar announced an intergovernmental working group in 
February 2009 to continue anti-drug measures.  The group failed to 
meet or set an agenda.  NGOs and drug treatment specialists reported 
that even in the midst of NADANP they were given little opportunity 
to offer input in anti-drug policy.  Despite the goal of supporting 
field studies, little remains known regarding drug related criminal 
activity, the quantity of drug production or the scale of narcotics 
abuse within Mongolia. 
 
(U) The government of Mongolia arranged a conference in June on 
National Anti-Drug Day, bringing together and emphasizing 
cooperation among government agencies and NGOs.  Meanwhile, 
conference resolutions from the prior year saw little progress. 
Although a 2008 forum had similarly emphasized cooperation between 
government agencies and NGOs and increased funding for the latter, 
these policies did not materialize.   NGOs reported continued 
isolation from policy discussions, and lost funding as budgets were 
cut amidst the international financial crisis.  In addition, there 
was no progress made on the 2008 conference proposal to build the 
nation's first drug rehabilitation center. 
 
(U) Law Enforcement Efforts: Law enforcement success hinges on 
intelligence gathering by the MCGA, the Border Patrol and the 
General Intelligence Agency, and the apprehension and investigation 
of suspects by the National Police Agency (NPA).  The NPA in turn 
divides these duties respectively between the Division Against 
Organized Crime within the Criminal Police Department and the State 
Investigation Department.  Year to date the police have seized 125 
ounces of cannabis, seven ounces of hashish and several amphetamine 
tablets.  In the same period 40 cases were opened regarding drug 
offenses, through which 35 people were found guilty.  In comparison, 
from 1998 to 2008, there were 215 people found guilty through 93 
cases.  Thirty foreigners were among those convicted in this period, 
including 15 Russians and 10 Chinese. 
 
(U) Drug traffickers tended to operate on an individual basis or in 
small groups.  Fully fledged organized criminal enterprises have yet 
to take root.  The Serious and Organized Crime Investigation 
Division reported no violent crimes by drug abusers.  The offenses 
most correlated with drug trafficking included identity card 
forgery, larceny and illegal border crossing.  Law enforcement 
officials report there is no evidence drug traffickers engage in 
money laundering within Mongolia. 
 
(U) Resources available to law enforcement are inadequate. 
Nationwide there are 60 police officers who work on drug cases 
related to minors, or one officer for every 15,000 children. 
Athough it is every police officer's duty to monitor secondary 
schools, it was unclear how effective the police were at monitoring. 
Only two children were referred to the National Psychopathology and 
Addictology Center year to date for narcotics abuse, and they were 
not provided with sustained treatment or counseling there. 
 
(U) Corruption: Although corruption is widespread in the public 
sector, there are no specific reports linking it to narcotics 
trafficking.  However there are possibly improprieties done by 
pharmacists and/or doctors given the numerous cases of morphine 
abuse by their former patients. 
 
(U) The Independent Authority Against Corruption investigates public 
officials for misconduct.  The Authority compels the country's top 
officials, including parliamentarians, Cabinet ministers and Supreme 
Court justices to declare their assets and income.  Although they 
have indicted a number of officials on charges of corruption, none 
were narcotics related.  The government does not encourage or 
facilitate illicit production of drugs or the laundering of the 
proceeds thereof.  No senior government official is known to 
facilitate or encourage the production or distribution of illegal 
drugs or the laundering of the proceeds thereof. 
 
(U) Agreements and Treaties: Mongolia is a party to the 1988 UN Drug 
Convention, the 1961 UN Single Convention as amended by its 1972 
Protocol, and the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances. 
Mongolia also is a party to the UN Convention Against Corruption and 
the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.  The United 
States and Mongolia have in force a customs mutual legal assistance 
agreement. 
 
(U) In December 2008, the MCGA signed a three-year technical 
cooperation agreement with the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration. 
Dutch officials have since begun assisting their Mongolian 
counterparts with risk management techniques and other 
capacity-building measures. 
 
(U) Drug Flow/Transit: The MCGA surmises there to be two primary 
drug transit routes into or through Mongolia.  The first brings 
narcotics from China into Mongolia.  The second originates in 
Central Asia, and passes through Mongolia with ultimate destinations 
as far as Japan and South Korea.  The predominant contraband is 
cannabis and hashish, both of which are also grown locally.  In 
addition, foreign manufactured amphetamines, heroin, and cocaine 
have also been seized in recent years. Although morphine stocks are 
government regulated and reserved for medical use, this narcotic is 
occasionally prescribed excessively or inappropriately, leading to 
patient addiction. 
 
(U) Domestic Programs/Demand Reduction: The lack of studies 
regarding domestic narcotics consumption hinders progress in setting 
metrics for demand reduction programs.  In 2009 for the first time 
the publicly sponsored National Psychopathology and Addictology 
Center published a booklet entitled The Distribution of Addicts.  It 
focuses on alcohol abuse and touches only briefly on narcotics.  Of 
note, it references a 2006 NGO that surveyed 1000 secondary school 
students in Zamyn-Uud, Darkhan and Ulaanbaatar.  Of those, 410 
admitted at least one instance of narcotic use, and 80 described 
themselves as addicts. 
 
(U) There is a dire lack of drug abuse prevention programs.  The 
government made little effort to inform the public regarding the 
dangers of narcotics and the path to recovery.  Public awareness 
initiatives of note included anti-drug advertisements broadcast on 
the occasion of National Anti-Drug Day.  Besides this, 
government-funded NGO staff visited primary schools to inform 
students of the dangers of alcohol and narcotics.  The primary 
source of increased narcotics awareness was the private media.  They 
reported on a number of narcotics trafficking and abuse cases, some 
involving public figures. 
 
(U) Drug treatment programs are also lacking.  Nationwide there are 
only two practicing doctors who have some specialization in 
narcotics abuse.  Both are employed in the Ulaanbaatar-based 
National Psychopathology and Addictology Center.  The only medical 
facility that specializes in addictions, the Center lacks the 
medical equipment to screen patients to determine what drugs are in 
their system. Furthermore, the treatment regimen is all but 
identical to that applied to alcohol abusers.  The number of 
patients being treated at the center for narcotics abuse is 
generally under 10 at any given time.  Only one new patient was 
admitted year to date in 2009.  This low number of admits is likely 
a product not only of the inaccessibility of appropriate treatment 
options to wide swaths of population, but also the lack of public 
awareness campaigns and the severe social stigma regarding drug use. 
 
IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs 
 
(U) Bilateral Cooperation: U.S. Government assistance has included 
international visitor programs on transnational crime and 
counternarcotics, as well as training by several U.S. 
law-enforcement agencies. 
 
(U) The Road Ahead: The United States will continue to cooperate 
closely with Mongolia to assist with implementation of 
counternarcotics policies, including border protection, support for 
the Independent Authority Against Corruption, and training and 
assistance for the Mongolian police. 
 
 
HILL