Cambodia to destroy all 'ecstasy oil' stocks

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Cambodia is cracking down on a raw ingredient for the club-drug ecstasy by wiping out stocks of an oil made from the roots of a rare rainforest tree, an official said on Thursday.

Cambodian authorities, with help from Australian police, will destroy 14 tonnes of sassafras, an ingredient for cosmetics but also a precursor chemical to make methylenedioxymethamphetamine, more commonly known "MDMA" or the party drug ecstasy.

The amount represents all known stocks of sassafras oil in Cambodia and will be the second-largest volume destroyed since the authorities made the oil illegal in 2007, said Cambodia Police Major General Meas Vyrith.

"It is dangerous," Meas Vyrith told Reuters. "It would make people become victims of the drug."

The crackdown is also aimed at preserving a rare tree found deep in Cambodia's jungles. The roots and trunk of the M'rea Prov Phnom tree provide the source of the oil. Illegal logging is threatening the tree with extinction.

"Without the right measures, they would all be destroyed," said Meas Vyrith, who is also a deputy secretary-general of Cambodia's anti-drug committee.

The oil will be destroyed on Friday in Battambang province, about 300 km (186 miles) northwest of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, using an Australian Federal Police technique aimed at minimising smoke and environmental damage, Meas Vyrith said.

Cambodia destroyed 35 tonnes of the oil in 2007.

(Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Alan Raybould and Alex Richardson)

3 tons of drugs went up in smoke

A Cambodian officer, right, pours fuel on to some three tons of various drugs, which were seized in raids earlier this year in eastern and southern Cambodia, on the outskirt of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, June 2, 2009. Cambodian authorities on Tuesday torched the herbs used to produce 'herbal ecstasy' as part of a campaign to wipe out synthetic drugs recently uncovered in the country. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
Cambodian officers burn nearly three tones of various drug making substances, which were seized in raids earlier this year in eastern and southern Cambodia, on the outskirt of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, June 2, 2009. Cambodian authorities on Tuesday torched the herbs used to produce 'herbal ecstasy' as part of a campaign to wipe out synthetic drugs recently uncovered in the country. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodia burns 3 tons of herbs used to make drugs

2009-06-02
Associated Press

Cambodian authorities on Tuesday torched nearly three tons of an herb used to produce "herbal ecstasy" as part of a campaign to wipe out designer drugs recently uncovered in the country.

The bonfire destroyed ephedra, used to make "herbal ecstasy" pills that have been blamed for deaths in the United States and elsewhere, as well as another one ton of the chemical thionyl chloride, which is used to make methamphetamine. "Herbal ecstasy" typically refers to a combination of stimulants _ often including ephedra.

The ephedra was seized in raids earlier this year in eastern and southern Cambodia, said Deputy Prime Minister Ke Kim Yan, who chairs the National Committee for Combating Drugs.

Officials at the ceremony, which included Australian drug experts, said the ephedra herbs were not grown in Cambodia but had been trafficked from China.

Authorities seized the thionyl chloride during a raid on a laboratory on an isolated farm west of Phnom Penh in April. It was Cambodia's first discovery of a laboratory producing synthetic drugs.

Cambodian police burn four tons of seized 'ecstasy' ingredients

Tue, 02 Jun 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian authorities on Tuesday burned four tons of ingredients used in the drug ecstasy after a series of raids that led to the arrest of four people, including two Chinese citizens. Mek Dara, secretary general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, said military police burned three tons of the sassafras plant, from which the ecstasy chemical ingredient MDMA is derived, along with one ton of other chemicals used to make the drug.

"We conducted a series of raids in Phnom Penh, Kampong Cham province and Takeo province over the weekend and arrested four people involved in importing this plant from China and growing it in Cambodia," he said. "Two Chinese citizens were arrested in these raids along with a Cambodian man and a Cambodian woman."

Mek Dara said the destruction of the ingredients Tuesday morning in Phnom Penh was supervised by Australian and US drug-trafficking specialists.

He said the four suspects were detained and would face court this week.

Cambodia last year introduced legislation to ban the trade in oil from the sassafras plant, which was being illicitly exported to Vietnam and Thailand.

Ecstasy threatens Cambodia’s jungles

One of the sassafras oil distilling factory in the jungles of Cambodia. Courtesy of Fauna & Flora International

January 14. 2009
Larry Jagan, Foreign Correspondent
The National (Arab Emirate)

PHNOM PENH // The illegal drugs trade is causing significant environmental damage to parts of Cambodia, according to an international aid agency.

In south-west Cambodia the production of sassafras oil, which is used when making the recreational drug ecstasy, is destroying trees, the local inhabitants’ livelihoods and wreaking untold ecological damage, according to David Bradfield, an adviser to the Wildlife Sanctuaries Project of Fauna and Flora International, who is based in the area.

The sassafras oil comes from the Cardamom Mountain area, one of the last forest wildernesses in mainland South East Asia.

“The illicit distilling of sassafras oil in these mountains is slowly but surely killing the forests and wildlife,” Mr Bradfield said. “The production of sassafras oil is a huge operation, which affects not only the area where the distilleries are actually located, but ripples outward, leaving devastation and destruction in its wake.”

The livelihoods of more than 15,000 people who depend on hunting and gathering to survive in the wildlife sanctuary are at risk from the sassafras production operations, which pollute water and kill wildlife.

Cambodian sassafras oil is highly sought as it is of the highest quality – more than 90 per cent pure, according to the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Cambodia, Lars Pedersen. It is a major precursor drug used in the production of ecstasy.

“Massive amounts of sassafras oil are smuggled every year into Vietnam and Thailand from Cambodia,” he said.

Sassafras Oil is made from the roots of the rare Mreah Prew Phnom tree – also known as Cinnamomum parathenoxylon. The roots are first chopped into small blocks of wood and shredded into fibre consistency. This is then put into large metal vats two metres high and about three metres wide. It is distilled over a wood-driven fire for at least five days before the gas is cooled and the oil created.

Apart from depleting the Mreah Prew Phnom, large numbers of surrounding trees are felled to maintain the fires, undermining the area’s biodiversity. At the current rate, Mr Bradfield said, the Mreah Prew Phnom and other species would become extinct in the near future.

Animal life is also threatened. Deep in the jungle, the factories, which have two or three distilling pots each, are heavily guarded and require dozens workers to maintain the stills. These workers live on the surrounding wildlife in the area, with many involved in the commercial poaching of such rare animals as tigers, pangolins, peacocks, pythons, wild cats and wild fowls.

Streams and rivers are being polluted too by the effluent from the oil production. “There are frequently dead fish and frogs floating in the streams near these distilleries,” Mr Bradfield said.

The contaminated water from this area flows down into the rest of Cambodia through the Mekong and Ton Le Sap rivers and, said Mr Bradfield, poses a threat to populations downstream who rely on the rivers for drinking water. “Water tests in the area need to be carried out as a matter of urgency,” he said.

Four years ago the Cambodian government made the production of sassafras oil illegal in an effort to protect the Mreah Prew Phnom tree. Since then the authorities have tried to eliminate the illicit production factories in the Cardamom Mountains with the help of international organisations.

“Law enforcement is the key to suppressing the illegal trade in sassafras oil,” said Mr Pedersen, the Cambodia UNODC chief. “It’s a very lucrative trade, worth millions and millions of dollars.”

About 50 rangers from the forestry ministry, with the support of independent conservation groups and the UN, are currently policing the area; Mr Bradfield refers to them as “the foot soldiers protecting the forests”.

The rangers spend half the month patrolling the dense, leech-infested jungle of the Cardamom Mountains for a meagre salary, Mr Bradfield said, and face the threat of the machine-gun-carrying mercenaries who guard the factories. Many of the factories are also surrounded by anti-personnel mines.

Flora and Fauna International has supported the rangers for years, providing them with uniforms, equipment and training. They assist in building ranger stations and provide technical advice. The UN Development Fund also supported the project between 2004 and 2006.

The rangers’ task is made all the more difficult because of the potential profits smugglers can make from the trade and the lengths they will go to protect their product.

A year ago the Thai authorities seized more than 50 tonnes of sassafras oil near the Cambodian border on its way to China and the US, according to western anti-narcotics agents who declined to be identified, reported to be worth US$150,000 (Dh550,000).

Had it found its destination, where it would have been used to make ecstasy – it would have produced 7.5 million tablets worth more than $150 million, a western anti-narcotics agent said.

ljagan@thenational.ae

Thank you Australian Fed Police for burning carcinogenic sassafras oil in Cambodia

The "ecstasy oil" goes up in smoke in Cambodia. (Photo: Australian Federal Police)

$7b 'ecstasy oil' stash goes up in smoke

June 20, 2008
Daniel Emerson
The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

Mr Morris admitted the substance was carcinogenic and the thick plume of smoke produced during the burn was not good for the environment

It's put a huge dent in the global manufacture of ecstasy but it's done the environment no good at all.

Australia Federal Police say they have destroyed a stockpile of a substance capable of creating $7.6 billion worth of the illegal drug.

Six AFP officers travelled to Cambodia this week to help burn more than 1000 drums of oil rich in a substance called safrole, which could have been used to make 245 million ecstasy tablets.

AFP assistant commissioner Tim Morris admitted the substance was carcinogenic and the thick plume of smoke produced during the burn was not good for the environment.

"But there doesn't seem to be any other way to dispose of this chemical and it was done in a remote area away from the population," he said.

He said four technicians and two forensic chemists were working in shifts helping Cambodian authorities burn 33 tonnes of the oil this week at Pursat, 170 kilometres west of the capital, Phnom Penh.

He said the AFP had been helping train the Cambodians in safely dealing with volatile clandestine drug laboratories when the Asian authorities realised their Australian counterparts could help them dispose of the drums seized during raids.

"It's incredible isn't it?" Mr Morris said. "It's a huge amount, there's no doubt about that.

"The majority of this [substance] would have been moved into neighbouring counties for further processing and it's certainly likely that this safrole would have been used in the production of ecstasy that would have ended up in Australia, for sure."

The AFP supplied the special equipment used in the burn, including chemical suits, breathing apparatus, decontamination showers, air compressors, generators and gas monitoring and analysis equipment.

The sweltering conditions meant the burning of the 1278 drums could only take place early in the morning or in the evening because the officers had to work in the hot full-length suits.

Safrole-rich oil is derived from the roots of two varieties of the sassafras tree, a rare species in Cambodia which only grows in the Cardamom Mountains in the country's south-west near the Thailand border.

Mr Morris said the Cambodian authorities were keen to stamp out the safrole trade because the sassafras tree was endangered and it was poor villagers who were invariably involved in handling it in clandestine laboratories which often exploded.

He said the Cambodian authorities had dismantled more than 50 clandestine laboratories and arrested 60 to 100 people involved in safrole production in the past few years.

Australian Federal Police wipes out stockpile of ecstasy oils in Cambodia

AFP wipes out stockpile of ecstasy oils

June 20, 2008
AAP (Australia)

More than 1,000 barrels of an oil that could have made billions of US dollars worth of ecstasy tablets have been destroyed in a joint operation by Australian Federal Police and Cambodian authorities.

Up in smoke went 33 tonnes of safrole-rich oil - enough to have made 245 million tablets - in the operation conducted at Pursat in western Cambodia this week.

Police said the oil, produced from local trees, was contained in 1,278 barrels and could have produced ecstasy tablets with an Australian street value of $7.6 billion.

The AFP says a significant blow has been dealt to the trade of illicit drugs in the region and the operation is an excellent example of federal police working with international policing partners.

"I commend the coordinated effort by Cambodian authorities to seize the oil, break the production chain and reduce the dependency on income from illegal drug manufacture," AFP national manager border international Tim Morris said in a statement.

"This oil is not only a precursor in ecstasy production, it also has considerable social and ecological ramifications for Cambodia's people and environment."

Mr Morris said the oil was known to be carcinogenic and mutagenic (capable of inducing genetic mutation) and the people working in the clandestine laboratories where the drugs are manufactured were among Cambodia's poorest farmers.

Safrole-rich oil is derived from the roots of two varieties of the Sassafras tree, classified as a rare species which only grows in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains.

To distil this oil from the roots, the entire tree is cut down with the timber used to fire the clandestine laboratory furnaces.

Much of the oil ends up in Vietnam, China and Thailand, where it is not illegal, for refinement.

The AFP team of four technicians and two forensic chemists from the Specialist Response Amphetamine Type Stimulants (SRATS) team began burning the oil stockpile this week, 170km west of the capital Phnom Penh.

To conduct the operation, the AFP members transported specialist equipment from Australia including chemical suits, breathing apparatus, decontamination showers, air compressors, generators and gas monitoring and analysis equipment.

The operation took several days and was conducted in the early morning and evening because of sweltering conditions.

Cambodian authorities had been working since 2002 to stem the distillation of safrole-rich oil, the AFP said.

They have detected and dismantled more than 50 clandestine laboratories capable of producing up to 60 litres a day.

The single-largest seizure was made in April this year during a three-week operation by the Cambodian National Police, military police, Cambodian prosecutors, forestry and environment officials in an uninhabited area of the western region.

Cambodia's National Authority for Combating Drugs then approached the AFP to assist with the safe disposal of the oil stockpile.