Weapons Acqusition Through Illicit Drug Profits

[TimNZ]

Hey, my name is Tim, I am currently researching my M.A. at Canterbury University in New Zealand.

I am looking at illicit drugs as a threat to state security in the Pacific, and am particularly interested in the use of drugs such as marijuana, or the profits from involvement with it, for weapons acquisition in PNG, Bougainville or the Solomon Islands.

Does anyone know if marijuana was cultivated in Bouganville during the civil war? Are there any former army or police personnel out there who know whether this occurred at all?

Tim

 

[gf0012-aust]

Hey, my name is Tim, I am currently researching my M.A. at Canterbury University in New Zealand.

I am looking at illicit drugs as a threat to state security in the Pacific, and am particularly interested in the use of drugs such as marijuana, or the profits from involvement with it, for weapons acquisition in PNG, Bougainville or the Solomon Islands.

Does anyone know if marijuana was cultivated in Bouganville during the civil war? Are there any former army or police personnel out there who know whether this occurred at all?

Tim

Tim,

I'd suggest that you contact AFP liaison and explain what you are researching, they may well be able to provide you with declassified or limited source material.

The other person worth contacting is Sean Dorney from the ABC. He is a long time regional reporter on that region and has earnt the respect and trust of key members of the BIG. He has also written a number of articles and books on the problems between Bougainville and PNG

 

[Stryker001]

!

"particularly interested in the use of drugs such as marijuana"


During the invasion in 1999 of Timor Leste the Indonesia militias’ had been using narcotics, the most recent unrest 06 in Timor Leste narcotics were involved. Australian Army Intelligence would have knowledge on 1999-06.

If Timor Leste goes into chaos and fails a part and Australia, the UN do not deploy, Indonesia would have a reason to re-enter Timor Leste or install a pro Indonesian Government. They will regain Timor Leste one day in some form or another.

You need something from the Europe, Asia, Africa Strategic Intelligence Unit coming out of the Office of Strategic Intelligence. They would have something on the Pacific Rim.

Fax the Intelligence Production Unit (202) 307-8726

 

[Stryker001]

1

You are really asking to question personnel performance and acquisitions.

To have a complete study you would have to start in WW2 with the SS and their studies of amphetamines and warfare. Spec-ops troops and pilots have been involved in trials in modern times.

Shabu in 1999 Timor Leste showed it is the preferred non-lethal synthetic chemical weapon to unleash anarchy, and is the strategy adopted by your enemies. Militia members will perform extreme violence, and suicidal last stands on Shabu.

Besides Shabu use is not restricted to race or nationality, so it is possible for covert agents of the militias to supply your own troops on deployment and extract low-level intelligence from them, given the fact the AU has the highest usage per capita according to the UN.

UN intelligence is very limited.

Shabu known in the west as ICE arrived in Australia in 1991, its called yaba in Thailand meaning ‘crazy drug’.

It is the best non-lethal synthetic chemical weapon I have seen in operation.

 

[Stryker001]

1

The problem with weapon acquisitions via narcotics in the pacific rim, is that they work on Polynesian time, so if a deal was done for the 1th it really means the 31th of the next month, part of the problem of setting up undercover controlled buys in that part of the world. You think they have been tipped off, but in a month, they turn up wanting to do the deal.

but weapon acquisitions via illicit means, narcotics, gold, people smuggling, child exploitation, basically anything of value, does occur on a small scale in the Pacific Rim.

Thats basically all I can say about it.

 

[TimNZ]

I've trawled through a lot of information and managed to get my hands on a confidential report from the Pacific Forum on Transnational Crime....very handy. From what I have come across so far, I'm convinced that throughout Melanesia the trading of marijuana for guns has been occurring on a scale not even conceived of.........it's a mixture of formal and ad-hoc.

I would like to find out if marijuana was/is cultivated on Bougainville.......I think that if it was, then it could have been a potential source of income for the BRA

 

[Stryker001]

~

Well good luck with your report, I complied an intelligence report last year for my employer on Australia’s ability to counter subversion, it touched on similar issues to yours.

 

[A.Mookerjee]

We might not like it, but the people who sell drugs, may be living in our neighborhood, and/or the people who buy drugs, may also be living in our neighborhood. As we are a part of the economy, we are directly responsible, all of us. It is the citizen who circulates money, by buying and selling. In Democracies, we have governments elected by the common man, who is looking at his selfish interests, and may not be looking at the interests of his nation. We are rewarding our irresponsibility, by voting in the same pattern all the time. In a democracy, the government, and the citizen is more responsible, than in a dictatorship. Can we say that about our respective governments, and ourselves? The economy runs exactly as it should. It is self regulating. All the vices, are required, so that we can lead happy, clean lives. Let prostitution flourish in Amsterdam, legally, so that my neighborhood is clean. There can be no solution, unless there is a broad common consensus, on the solution to the problem, where all more or less agree. What comes around, goes around, and the vices of others, what we feed, may come back to torment us.

 

[TimNZ]

well......Mookerjee, nice post but completely irrelevant