Kif by Bob J. Zehmer

Bob J. Zehmer

(excerpt from)

Kif Hashish from Morocco

Bob J. Zehmer Kif Hashish from Morocco Routes, bribery, fight against crime, mafia-style organizations, connections with hard drugs, money laundering and even more disquieting world scenarios A trip among the illicit traffics and the main characters in an ongoing foul play

A view of the Rif mountains around Ashawen 2010

Contents Preface

What went before

Hashish

Geography of trafficking and a tip of history

Sitting on the edge of the volcano

Criminal organizations

106

Directly from the mouth of the protagonists

127

Money laundering

192

Final remarks

216

Bibliography

227

The author may be reached at: www.bobjzehmer.com no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, typing, or by any information storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author the photo on the cover and many others in this book appear courtesy of Dr Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy http://www.geopium.org Geopium.org was created and is published by Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy geographer and research fellow at the National Center for Scientific Research (C.N.R.S., Prodig unit). Published by EbookIT, Dec. 2010, USA

Acknowledgements Let me take the pleasure to acknowledge all the people who made this book possible. They are so many, and I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to forget anybody. My wife and daughters for their patience in letting me take my time to carry on my research being often unavailable. Siddik, and all his relatives, for being so kind and largely generous with support and information. Terrence for his precious suggestions and economic hints; without his valuable help this book would still be floating on air. Then again, all the police officers with whom I dialogued, their colleagues and all those from Justice Depts. who do their best for a more just world day after day. Special thanks to Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy geographer from the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, for his courtesy to share his marvelous photos, and significant warnings I treasured. I do want to address my gratitude also to Jefferson who helped me get ahead when I felt discouraged, and John for his interest on my work, his indications were of extreme worth. My heartfelt appreciation to Grace Huber for helping bowdlerize, her professionalism has been a great spur to me. Still there are more people who have a say and they are: Dominique, Teresa, Helen, Freddy, Manuel, Burt, Juan, Xavier, Liefer, Ace and Bodes, a sincere word of credit to you all. Last yet not least, many thanks to Bo Bennet and all the staff from ebookit.com for getting this e-book published. I have no qualms of suggesting their highly qualified service.

All those above mentioned are the ones who gave me all the backing I needed to accomplish my work, I would not have gone that far without them. I even want to express thanks to those who revealed a lot of information through interviews, from which I could get impressive, and somewhat startling, stuff for this book. I beg your pardon for approximations and errors that may appear in this work; I take it upon myself. In addition, I had to take into due account information of practices, feats, traditions and activities quite so distant from my usual knowledge and practicing. Therefore, I will enjoy any of your suggestion and criticism at bobjzehmer.joyspoon.com or bobjzehmer.posterous.com Under no circumstances, this book may be meant as an invitation to breaking the law and/or using drugs. The law is the pact we have accepted for living in harmony each other, and by respecting human rights we may as well be said good citizens everywhere. Only what is sanctioned by law may amend the law; in other words, laws can be changed as a result of democratic procedures as laid down by the law itself. To conclude, my warmest thanks to all of you who spend your time on this book; I hope youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d find it worth reading.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The cause of all wars, riots and injustices is the existence of propertyâ&#x20AC;? (St. Augustine) For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him. (Karl Marx) An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all. (Oscar Wilde) What can I know? What ought I to do? What may I hope? (Immanuel Kant) Dedicated to: All my family and friends those who sacrificed their lives for fighting against organized crime those who fight day by day against all arrogance and abuse anybody may love and try for truth

Preface This is a nonfiction book on a scabrous subject, the drug trafficking, with particular reference to hashish smuggled from Morocco. This work has been realized thanks to a personal inquiry lasted several years, in which I’ve had the good luck to interview drug smugglers and various front-line policemen from different European Countries. I take leave to spell out that I am neither a physician nor a pharmacologist, so I won’t dwell upon psychotropic and medical effects of cannabis. I am far more concerned about the critical outbreak with which a criminal action like drug trafficking socks our societies. That’s why I have been canvassing this phenomenon focusing my attention on criminal associations, police forces’ efforts to fight against it, human dramas, and economic damages that even a so-called soft drug may cause. Phytocannabinoids, that’s to say the active principles contained in the plant of Cannabis sativa L., are considered soft drugs as against other substances as cocaine, heroin, crack, ecstasy and so on. All in all, the division illustrated on the tables A, B, C or I and II, in relation to the distinct legislations, is based more on political stance than on scientific investigations. As always, opinions vary on this point; no need to say that many scientists don’t get on at all well together upon this topic. Some studies argue that it is possible to get hashish and marijuana both from Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica, and likewise

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from hybrid varieties. However, these are particularly divisive themes on the scientific side, let alone the political viewpoint. Not for nothing, these controversial issues have been the source of much confusion. In the UK, for instance, Cannabis was downgraded from B to C in the psychotropic substances classification; yet later, in 2009, it was brought back to B after social alarm caused by the skunk, a special crossbred cannabis – indica and sativa – that popped up around in the 1980s. Nonetheless, Professor Leslie Iversen, pharmacologist from Oxford University, asserts that the so-called skunk doesn’t contain a high percentage of THC – the compound of cannabis. In fact, he states that it does not exceed 10% – 12%; like many other independent studies prove it. Other Countries, like Italy since 2006, for example, make no difference between hard and soft drugs. The notion that Marijuana wasn’t a soft drug, started off during the late 1980s and in the 1990s, because many sustained that the compound had stepped from 4% up to 16% of THC, which has deserved this hypothesis the name of Theory of 16%. Yet there are many scholars and specialists in the field, who affirm that we should query whether the repressive stance on drugs must be held like the right thing. Jacques Derrida, French philosopher (1930 – 2004) in his work Rhétorique de la drogue published in 1989, argued that the notion of ‘drug’ is just founded on moral and political viewpoints, and it is completely devoid of any scientific approach. At the same time, so as to come clean, I won’t have you searching between the lines, and so I come out straight; I agree with Derrida’s perspective. I am a convinced supporter of le9

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galization, and I think drug trafficking is a fake quandary! I am a hard fighter against all criminal associations too – did it need to be spelled out? – and that’s why I think that organized crime would suffer a deadly stroke if the prohibition era should terminate! To wage war to narcos it’s a good thing, a world rid of criminals it’s just what all truthful people wish, but a question rises, “What about narco-mafias if drug trafficking were not a business any longer?” Therefore, someone could say, “Let’s decriminalize murder, and we’re going to have fewer criminals. If murderers are not outlaws, we mustn’t keep prosecuting them on!” By Jove, don’t overdo! In due course, we will deal with this stance any better, but let me tell right now that there is a substantial difference. When someone kills a person commits an irreparable evil by depriving the victim of his/her right to live; conversely, when someone rushes to a chemist’s shop, for example, to buy narcotics – in case drugs were legalized – they are only taking up their right to be free. Now, one more time that guy would say that ingesting drugs is not freedom at all since they cause addiction and death! Yes, I’d reply! I don’t think I would be more free if I could consume cocaine any given day; nevertheless, are we sure that anybody would make it? Should people be brought up to respect their lives, as well as the others’, should our civilization value the environment as a resource instead of making a garbage can out of it, I wouldn’t fear six billion people in the world wake up at morning goaded by the need of drug. Around 250 million people in the world use drugs, most of them – between 143 and 190 million – fall back on cannabis; 10

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nonetheless, I am convinced that legalizing drugs would not mean increasing the number of users. Tobacco and alcohol are officially permitted, yet most people don’t smoke or exceed with alcohol. There is a leitmotif among prohibitionists; they believe that drugs drive people to raise violence with the consequence that there would be more criminal offences, most of all those related to bloodshed. We can make sure that cannabis is not the perfect drug to draw on to be brutal to kill; yet again, I guess this is a misplaced question. Let’s assume that someone would want to mug or even kill, and he or she would take drugs to behave with cold determination. Well, everybody knows that one can find all kind of drugs in the black market, just because of the trafficking, but do you seriously think that bloodshed can be linked to drugs legalization? We know that some individuals take drugs with no bad intention, and then they end up doing horrible things when crazed with high buzz, for sure; yet no prohibition policy would ever cease that. Are our societies so weak not to be able to communicate values? Here goes the matter, and thus we are so scared! I wouldn’t want a society that conveys taking drugs as a good idea, and I wouldn’t be pleased to hear that freedom is to be rid of all proscriptions that keep us from slaughtering each other; it is not what I want to emphasize. I want to suggest taking into due account if it’s worth to maintain a prohibition stance that enriches more and more the mafias. In my opinion, this policy is pushing billions of people to hell, and obliging Countries to be equipped with means and 11

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forces to fighting drugs trade, but at the end of the day, more social and human costs is what we get. Just like terrorism, even drug trafficking gives rise to wars, and this results a persuasive tool to coerce governments to contain people’s freedom and help fear grow, and fear is quite a fitting instrument of social control. Well, maybe I’d better say fear is a tremendous device to shape, as much as they like, the instrument of social control par excellence, the law! Thus, narcotraffic is a global fact that is born from prohibition, and we don’t ask for it to be decriminalized. Actually, we suggest legalizing drugs under the State’s control and, the way it works for tobacco and alcohol, it should be supported by a massive educational campaign, to get the message through people about all the risks for health. Obviously, the informative campaign should make clear that, everybody under psychotropic substances, is going to be punished with the utmost severity, when taking drugs with the intent to hurt. No one with common sense would ever suggest authorizing all drugs all of a sudden. It is just a rough matter, and it must not be made light of; it takes but a shallow smattering, hence, starting by legalizing cannabis could be an overture. We all know that we live in such advanced world where everything is market-orientated; all must be thought as business, that's why even human life is deemed an item to squeeze in order to earn money. Well then, when shall we have such a serious, and indicative debate humanly sustainable? Men make much of a nonsense you know, and sometimes we wonder whether they are stupid or someone else’s plan is in between. I sense a little of both. What’s the point of handing a child a gun then lamming him because he shot you in a leg? 12

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As showed in the title, in this research we analyze what happens in Morocco, but weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll turn our look also at another region somewhat affected by these traffics: the so-called Costa del Sol, sited between Capo de Gata and Tarifa, in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia in the south of Spain. Although nowadays this phenomenon impinges on the entire Spanish coast that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in the Costa del Sol that everything began about four decades ago. Yet, since the 1950s Spain has been crossroads for the drug trafficking. In that early time, it hosted leading figures of the Italian-American organized crime, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in the 1970s that cannabis becomes visible in the list of smuggled substances. Still we have to wait for the 1980s to record a significant interest from the international criminality, when larger freights of hashish start to be shipped from side to side, finding receptive and rich markets in West Europe and North America.

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What went before

Bob J. Zehmer

Juvenile revolts in the 1960s A revolt deserves to be considered the mother of all students revolt. It dates October 18, 1967, and it ensues at University of Wisconsin-Madison, soon after the call for new recruits by the Dow Chemical Company. Some hundreds of students rise barring the entrance to the University’s commerce building in what has passed into history as the Dow riot. It is at full stretch of Vietnam war, the famous 28th Infantry of the 2nd battalion – a.k.a. the Black Lions – on October 17, suffers an ambush by the NLF (National front for the liberation of south Vietnam) better known as the Viet Cong. The American soldiers – in a ratio of 1 to 10 as against the Vietnamese – are overcome; it comes up to be a butchery. Americans begin to feel vulnerable, and rumors begin to sway at homeland. It smells like a rout. Those boys wouldn’t mean to make war and die; they have been immolated in the name of such a freedom that is harder and harder to get. They never meant to sacrifice their lives, but the war took their lives away, however. American people begin to think that Vietnam is becoming a morass, which is going to cost grief and severe collateral damages before to see the light. Boys come home in plastic bags, what’s left of them, just assembled pieces, like dismantled toys in the warlike craziness of those who don’t fight, and yet they want the war to get their business going and ensuring large profits. American propaganda is unable to stem the tide and rebellion outbursts as soon as the Dow sets to taking on applicants.

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The Dow was the chemical industry that produced the napalm used by the US Army in Vietnam, which caused many casualties even among the same American soldiers. Wisconsinite students had had enough, and they broke out – just a few hours after the Black Lions faced defeat – carrying signs reading “Vietnam to Vietnamese, let’s get out!” At first, the Authorities stand aside, but then they call the police to charge. The truncheons spin like hell, they are the authoritarian ramifications of the capitalist fiend. The grim sound of the broken heads echoes all around; later some of the protesters would claim to have heard like the thud of melons that split. The young dissenters are reproached like filthy hippies, pigs, communists, reds. In the clash, two old school mates meet each other quarreling in opposing factions. The policeman shouts to the student, “What are you doing in here?”; the student retorts, “You tell me! We’re just vindicating our rights, those principles that are sanctioned by our constitution!” Yet there is a time where the freedom of speech, even when endorsed by the law in a democratic State, cannot be exercised for fear of spoiling economic interests that are considered as key reasons by that same Country. It is a paradoxical merry-go-round, as if freedom were guaranteed by the free market that, through the free initiative, would emancipate the people. Some months after the riot at Madison University, on January 1968, soviet tanks crushed in Prague to suffocate Czechoslovak revolt, and confirm communist totalitarianism. This was the specular order the world was then given: on the one end the dictatorship of the proletariat, on the other side 16

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the free market that makes people free, but when the market itself is threatened, there is no other freedom to be sheltered, the sole to rise to dignity can be but its own. American students were aware of it, and that’s why they would fight back, they didn’t want to give up to a world that claimed to hold the rights and lives of the human beings, into the capitalism schemes, or inside a despotic system. Chancellor William Sewell, who called the police to put down the riot, regretted what he did. Years later, he conceded that the reaction had been excessive as to the possible menace. He admitted, indeed, that it was just a lawful and peaceful protest, and those boys and girls had the right to direct their complaint toward something they thought to be extremely unfair. Then, in June 1968, Sewell quit the chancellorship to return to his career as a scholar. More than 70 students were driven to the hospital with various bodily harms on head, back and legs, and dozens had to go under treatments to recover from tear gas. The boys were upset, they thought to be true patriots just claiming the rights of the American people along with those of other peoples to self-determination. Those same human rights consecrated in their own law. They couldn’t realize why in a Country held as the symbol of freedom, the police would react like the armed arm of a despotic regime. It was a massacre, and students shouted at police “Fascists!” and “Sieg Hail!”, but the officers were unable to go up against words, and so they hit the protesters as inflexible as they could with clubs and tear gas canisters. When some of the young tried to break out the encircling, police shattered their knees so that not to let them go back to the commerce building.

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It is just the macabre and sad joke of the proletarian defending the middle-class regime, against the youthful bourgeois in the bud dissenting. The first ones have no chance to go schooling due to the lack of means, and so they turn themselves into the best shield in favor of the middle-class privileges, while the latter on the fast track – learned and rebels – undermine the foundations of their own society. Yet afterwards, as time goes by, some lay down their youth eagerness, and come back where they belong, placing at the top positions of the social ladder. By then, America was being shaken for over ten years by the pugnacious and perspicacious Dr Martin Luther King Jr., who opposed racial segregation, and in 1964 – 35-year-old – became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. King, perhaps the most famous civil rights activist, kept preaching nonviolence until the day James Earl Ray – habitual offender who flew the coop hiding himself in a bread van in 1967, while serving 20 years on a penalty inflicted in 1959 – shut his mouth for good shooting him to death on April 4, 1968, at Memphis, Tennessee. This was the breeding ground of a double-faced America, where revolts rose up, and the police were always on call. Still, just the reaction to the University of Wisconsin-Madison riot, brought people to wonder, “If the police played so foul with their own fellows at home, what crimes would the US soldiers commit abroad?” The government needed more combatants and called for new recruits. Boys left, but those lucky who got back home were not welcomed with parades and celebrations. War in Vietnam was sensing defeat, and there is no reward for the losers. Their fathers had come back home from the Second World War as heroes, but now they were being given 18

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mockery and scorn. Then they were soon forlorn, many had to face dire poverty, and others came to an inauspicious end committing crimes and atrocities, way too easy to forecast when neglected minds have suffered so much cruelty for a deep, long time. Horror may intrude and dwell even the strongest spirits. The insurrectionists at Wisconsin Madison University didn’t see their reasons vanish in the air, anyhow; in 1973 Paul Soglin, inspirer of the revolt, became mayor of Madison, and he managed to drive the town to some significant changes. He fought for women and minorities rights, and he favored the plan to build State Street Mall in downtown, what nowadays we call it a pedestrian shopping area. Again, he promoted kindergartens, theaters and cultural centers, and he initiated a season where citizens and social institutions could compare opinions over public topics in a more direct democratic system. Soglin had got his degree in law from the Wisconsin Madison University in 1972. In 2005, Clark Welch and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Maraniss met the former Colonel Vo Minh Triet, who admitted that no one won on that day. Welch was the Black Lions lieutenant survived to the ambush in 1967, while Maraniss wrote a brilliant report of the battle of Ong Thanh and of the Dow riot, They marched into sunlight, publisher’s imprint Simon & Shuster, 2003. Vo Minh Triet was the NLF 271st Regiment commander. The meeting was held in a peaceful atmosphere of total reconcilement. Now, this contraposition between those who pull the strings of economy – and subsequently of politics – and the 19

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young that rise, may result into fashions and mores that usually diverge from the initial premise, and it may frequently well debase to extreme decadence. When the big business wants to get obedience so as to enforce its order and express itself the way it likes, not only causes resistance, it can even lead to out-ofcontrol reactions. To draw attention to these events is not so disconnected from the rest of the subject. They have been given just to recall the context in which youth protests sparked off, and it was right there that all those liberty needs came to light. Unfortunately, they havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always resulted in the good for all. Many of those requests came out as incomplete projects, in my estimation. In fact, a good part of their supporters went off the point as the rest were soon assimilated in those conservative schemes they had wished to change. Nonetheless, it must be said that this is not the right place to analyze thoroughly such social dynamics, as well as, in my viewpoint, history reconstructions are quite complicated and cannot be conclusive. History can neither assert nor authenticate many facts because those moments in time cannot be recreated. Nor could a trial do that. History task is to provide a probable version, although it results spoilt by the partial standpoint of the observers. If phenomenology concerns science, then history â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that is not a science at all â&#x20AC;&#x201C; turns out to be drenched with it. I know how I think, I know how my father thought, I know how my grandfather thought, but past the time of my grandfather, it goes right back to not understanding the feelings or mindset.

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What I daresay is that those protests were aimed to reject that world order that kept humanity in check under the cold war menace over some 50 years. Later, everything would accommodate according to the dominant imperative, claiming a balance yet so difficult to get. Capitalism has undoubtedly taken a heavy toll of victims, but Communism did as much as its western brother. Therefore, a question had long been tormenting many minds, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Was it just a collateral damage or a prearranged plan?â&#x20AC;?

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A little history on drug trafficking and organized crime In the 1960s and 1970s marijuana was considered as a drug of protest, used by those who rejected capitalism and enjoyed rock and roll as a philosophy of liberation. Well, it may perhaps sound strange, but that’s what it was like. On the contrary, at dawn of the 1980s, cannabis was starting to get a significant connection with drug smuggling and accumulation of capitals in favor of the organized crime. Drug trafficking began some time back, since the early years of post WW II, when big shots like Lucky Luciano, and then Joe Bananas Bonanno, conceived criminal networks for heroin and helped establish connections with the Sicilian cousins from Cosa Nostra. They managed to create one of the most prominent undercover crime industries, emerged thanks to the famous FBI investigation called Pizza Connection, on July 12 1979, when Carmine Galante, another American-Italian drug baron, was slain in New York. The FBI inquiry, also supported by some Italian magistrates, pointed the huge business between Sicily and North America. Palermo’s outskirts had become a drug refinery, where morphine from the east was processed and then distributed; all done by means of sophisticated tools and trained personnel. Heroin was shipped to New York, and the money coming from the combine secured into Swiss banks in US dollars. Not all the arrests made in the wake of the investigation could wipe out the American mob, nor could they eradicate the Sicilian mafia, regrettably. This latter had got a solid know-how to get the business going – in addiction to an enormous amount of cash – with the result that trading back and forth with their 22

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cousins overseas went on, and soon after they could expand in Italy and Europe. When in the 1980s, the boss Totò Riina from Corleone, and his gang took over Palermitan mafia, they gained all the assets and contacts. Drug addiction was widely spreading all over in the west, and Cosa Nostra began to be more wealthy and fearsome, making a fortune out of it. Up to the late 1970s, hashish wasn’t so attractive for organized crime. It was just held cheap, and earnings could not be comparable to those from heroin; furthermore, it took voluminous transports, and thus it was utterly neglected. In the meanwhile, around the mid-1970s, another internal conflict burst out within the Neapolitan mafia. In 1970, Raffaele Cutolo – Italian gangster sentenced to life, definitively in jail since 1979 – founded the NCO (Nuova Camorra Organizzata) whose members distanced themselves from the old fashion of the old Camorra – the secret society born in Naples in the 19th century, and to which was originally given the name of Bella Società Riformata. Among all the misdeeds to commit, Cutolo listed also international drug trafficking in his personal record. Naples has one of the most important harbors of the Mediterranean Sea, and the freights – legal and smuggled – that are being continuously dealt, are often ridden by the Camorra like a gravy train. Cutolo managed to change the Camorra into a hierarchic organization, more similar to the Sicilian mafia, and this new setup was soon going to meet glory and fame. Later, when he faced his fall, the organization broke in a myriad of internal wars, splitting into small independent gangs, more or less rallied in a System. Just the Italian word Sistema was the ultimate appel23

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lative they chose for a name. These self-governing small systems crowd the entire region Campania, and they are always at daggers drawn with each other to prevail over dealings and areas. This does not mean that their criminal potency can be underestimated; they are pretty violent and awesome. Tons of narcotics move through Naples, which is not the only criminal activity they are engaged in; in fact, they don’t despise to venture on squeezing, robbing, murdering, pimping, worming within the local authority and the State apparatus, and so forth. More or less in the same period, mid-1970s, also another mafia-like organization, the Calabrian Ndrangheta, was about to be squashed by a fratricidal war. Until that point, the Ndrangheta had maintained relationships with some Masonic lodges in order to get in touch with the political apparatus. Nonetheless, old and feared bosses the likes of Mommo Piromalli and Paolo de Stefano, decided to be Freemasons themselves to get straight to their goals, and increase their influence. Soon a clash exploded, and the dissidents were ruthlessly eliminated. The loosing leaders like Macrì and Tripodo – Domenico Macrì was killed at Poggioreale penitentiary in Naples in 1976 by explicit command of de Stefano – were old traditionalist men who believed in the codes of the old mafia, and didn’t feel like allying with other organizations. They didn’t want to have anything to do with drug trafficking and kidnapping, which were the emerging criminal misdeeds at that time in Calabria. Therefore, from being racketeers and tobacco smugglers, they stepped to kidnapping and drug trafficking, taking their qualitative leap, and investing huge funds in the new criminal course. 24

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This was an incomparable rising that later strengthened, thanks to the alliance formed with the newborn AUC 1 in 1997. The paramilitary organization AUC, was established, as of the far right wing militants, with the intention to defend some Colombian territories that were being harassed by rebel gangs devoted to plunder and murder, on the plea to make up for the government inability to guarantee law and order. This was just a foul pretext. In truth, the AUC sheltered the business of some large landowners and gentry, subduing and slaying poor people. It sprang from the union of various paramilitary groups getting to number 20 thousand members – counting even women. Later, we shall see that, although it was supposed to break up in 2006, some factions are still alive and kicking around. Carlos Castaño Gil, one of the commanders, suffered an attempt on his life on April 2004, presumably by his own bodyguards, but rumors are rather inconclusive; some say he died, some affirm he escaped and took to the bush. Shortly after, late May 2004, his right-hand man Carlos Mauricio Garcia alias Doble Cero, was found dead. It’s significant to say that he had put up a valiant resistance to the narcos alliance. The AUC liaison with the Ndrangheta was Salvatore Mancuso Gomez, also known as Triple Cero. He was born in Montería, Colombia, in 1964, by Italian father and Colombian mother. He first studied civil engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, then agricultural economics at Escuela de Formación Técnica Agricola in Bogotá, and finally English at Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. Mancuso is being hosted by the US Department of Justice in a safe prison after extradition in 2008 for international drug trafficking. He has confessed his 1 Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia).

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relationships with the Ndrangheta, admitting he managed to ship as many as 8 metric tons of cocaine in Gioia Tauro port, in the southwestern Calabria, Italy. He also committed with Colombian authorities to a peace building, while imprisoned in the USA he witnessed for demobilization, and as part of the Justice and Peace process. His statements are quite disquieting when accusing Colombian police and military to have helped AUC raid and slaughter rebels from EPL (Ejército Popular de Liberación), from FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionaria de Colombia), from ELN (Ejercito de Liberación Nacional) and even helpless people. The AUC is held as a terrorist organization, by the USA and European Union, it should have ceased within 2006, soon after Mancuso capture. Nonetheless, the so-called Peace and Justice law, which provides amnesty, considers drug trafficking to be worth of extradition. This is the reason why many leaders have announced they don’t want to give in, for fear of being extradited to the US in relation to narcotrafficking charges. Yup, where do you think they have always been picking their money from? Back to the Ndrangheta, since the 1980s, it has become the most powerful criminal association for cocaine trafficking worldwide, with noteworthy cash streaming in; this money is reinvested in the legal economy and other illicit trades, amongst which hashish smuggling. They can count on Gioia Tauro and Naples as two safe landing places of strategic importance to keep market positions. Mancuso’s arrest, and the partial demobilization of the AUC, haven’t been able to mar the Calabrian criminal society’s

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plans, they have sent some fellows to Colombia, indeed, where they have got high levels of control. Throughout this preliminary account, I have reported some information about Italian mafia-style organizations not so much to declare that it is only there that we have to look for. No doubt that more criminal societies perform on drug trafficking, I don’t want to be mistaken for anti-Italian. Moreover, it feels superfluous and stupid to mention that only a few as against most of the population in southern Italy are crooks and bandits, but I would be misunderstood if I hadn’t done that. I just want to point out that thanks (sic!) to the Camorra, Cosa Nostra, Ndrangheta and the youngest Sacra Corona Unita, in other words, all the most influential Italian mafia-style associations, drug trafficking is what we know it to be now. It’s a worldwide phenomenon, burdening on our lives and economies, and it seems to be a beast almost indomitable. You may well cut its head off, but it grows two more, you chop a hand, and it reacts with the other thousands it has. I say ‘almost’ because I am convinced that, sooner or later, mafias will disappear. I agree with the late never too lamented judge Giovanni Falcone, who fell victim of the Sicilian mafia along with his wife and three policemen in 1992, he used to have it that one day organized crime will come to an end like any other human occurrence. The trouble is that Italian mafias have created guidelines; they have slipped into the temporal and criminal power, and they have encroached on our territories and rights all over. This means that, even those crooks who act independently, end up dealing with them. Certainly, there are mafias in many places: China, Japan, Russia, Ireland, and many others; anyway, as to see the point, 27

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we notice that Italian ones have been able to dominate and act in agreement with other associations. No matter if they have had to face intestine wars, they have got to spread out internationally, giving proof to be skillful at money laundering, infiltrating legal economy, and penetrating the political systems. Moreover, by acquiring power, they have always left an endless trail of blood, and also more worrying social alarm. As we shall learn from the words of some traffickers and police officers engaged in fighting over drug smuggling, hashish trafficking would not reach such startling stages if Italian criminal organizations hadn’t been in between. Although this business can be manned by only one person, as many testimonies want to mean, we can make sure that, without the money of the mafias, this trades would suffer plenty of troubles. To get these dealings going, indeed, it takes organization and means, logistic premises, commercial relationships, ability to negotiate even with governmental and financial institutions by the time of reinvesting illicit funds. As many independent traffickers affirm, their careers end, for the most part, without having got a sou to bless themselves with. Good old 16th century English poet Thomas Tusser was right, in all his wisdom as a farmer, when he used to have it that a fool and his money are soon parted. Yet again, although the nonaligned traffickers lead a dissolute life, ending up in jail poor and wretched, we can’t see as many mafiosi falling apart like that. No doubt, many bosses are often detained, and their goods are seized, but what it makes the difference is that organized crime – as a whole – keeps growing stronger. It carries on trading, assures certain wellbeing to inmate fellows and their families, controls valuable assets, and interweaves worrying interactions with the authorities. 28

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We have already pointed out that mafias teach; in fact, more than a criminal association patterns its organization after theirs, no matter if minor groups donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reach the same feats; they turn out to be dangerous, however. We canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t omit noticing that drug dealing, like any other international trade, needs many figures to be manned, as complex as its chain may be. In sum, Italian mafia was started in the narcotics route by immigrant American cousins, yet it was able to not playing the stooge; as soon as it smelled a good deal, it entered the gears even pioneering with innovative ways. Some can say that recent waves of arrests, and investigations from the Spanish authorities, make out that Russian mafia is infiltrating in various local administrations, bribing officers, gaining illegal building licenses after influence peddling and you name it. Well, Italian mafias are familiar at least since two centuries as soon as they emerged with those misdeeds. In no way, Italian organized crime can be deemed as a lesser god in the criminal Olympus.

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Hashish

Bob J. Zehmer

Etymology of the word Hashish The origins of the word hashish are vividly debated. Some retain that the word proceeds from haššāšīn, the name of the ancient faction of Nizari faithful to the Ismā'īlī Shia, which was born in Persia, in the 8th century – when Persians were still loyal to Sunnah – remaining alive up to the 14th century also in Syria and more middle eastern Countries. The word assassin, in effect, is thought – incorrectly! – to derive from the term Hashshashin, or Hashishin. In the late 11th century, under the command of Hassan-ISabbāh, the faction started to sow alarm among their political enemies by perpetrating what nowadays we call it suicide terrorist attacks. They usually killed notable persons at daylight in a mosque or a public square, and then they bravely faced the retaliation from the bodyguards of their victim who’d beat them to death. This helped feed the legend according to which the indolence and coldness they showed as being lynched, were caused by the hashish they used to consume before their missions. In point of fact, some researchers sustain that hashish eaters in Arabian language is said haššāšīn, yet many others assert it is just an invention from Ismailis enemies. Amin Maalouf, Lebanese author and scholar, quickly challenges this derivation, maintaining that the right word from which the name of the faction is considered to originate is asās, scilicet foundations or basis. Much of what commonly thought about the Nizari Ismailis sect is legend, or merely rambling disinformation given away by would-be intellectuals, in any case. To be clear, they are just groundless theories. 31

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Another version, better welcomed among the academics, traces the origin back to the Arabian word hašīš, which would mean herb. Other translations lead to the Sufi’s cult, who took this substance during their religious practices. Sufism is considered as the mystical dimension of Islam, and it’s allegedly to proceed from Hasan-al-Basri, a Muslim theologian who lived in the late 7th and early 8th century. This is thought to be the doctrine that merges the Christian mysticism with Neo-Platonism, grounding for a deep spirituality and research of God also called Islamic mysticism. It is likewise possible to make out some traits that are peculiar to the Greek, Persian and Hindu world. Among the Muslims, Sufis have been ostracizing right because of using hashish on transcendental purpose. It may not be so fortuitous the fact that some Moroccans indicate the best quality of hashish by making use of the term bismillah, which originates from Bi-smi 'llāhi al-Rahmāni al-Rahīmi, that is “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate”, the adage with which each sura of the Koran begins, except the ninth. Yet most Moroccans, specially nowadays, don’t use this term. It looks like also the ancient Celt, and other Germanic peoples used hashish in their ascetic practice. In the 1930s the Polish anthropologist Sula Benet, put forward that ancient Jews might have made religious use cannabis. She interpreted the words kaneh-bosm or kneh-bosm quoted by the Old Testament – see: Gen. 1:29-30; Ex. 30:8-10 e 30:22-33; SoS 4: 8-14; Is. 43:22-24; Jer. 6:20; Ez. 27:19 – as cannabis; then in 1980, the Hebrew University in Israel, confirmed Benet’s theory asserting that the locution kaneh bosm is meant to be translated “hemp blossoms”. Nonetheless, in the international version of the 32

Bob J. Zehmer

bible, the words have been translated Calamus or Acorus, a plant from the family of Acoraceae. Still, we find cannabis even in some early Christian communities, used as anointing oil, as a medication and during the baptism to be a sign of the passage from death-and-sin to the kingdom of Heaven. Again, hashish is employed in Hinduism and Buddhism. As a matter of fact, is told that Siddhartha, before becoming Buddha, ate cannabis seeds for as many as six years, even if now faithful are advised not to use it. No doubt, Rastafarians are the best-known religious followers to make use of cannabis nowadays. The Rastafari movement was born in the 1930s thanks to the syncretism of various Christian rites in Jamaica. It is monotheistic, and worships Haile Selassie I, a.k.a. Tafari Makonnen – emperor of Ethiopia who reigned from 1930 to 1974. The devotees sustain that Selassie is the Second Advent of Jesus, the Parusia of Christ, but many Rastas maintain that Rastafari is more like a philosophy of living than a religion tout court. The movement known as Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church – which is not to be mistaken with the Ethiopian Coptic Orthodox Church – emerged from the Rastafari tradition in the early 1970s and then it widely spread in Florida in 1975. Well, this cult asserts that cannabis is to be thought as the Eucharist, sustaining that it is true in line with an Ethiopian oral tradition since Jesus Christ time. Quite disputed matter that gets many historians and theologians raising hell.

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Cannabis resin powder and hashish obtained from heating and compressing the powder

Cannabis powder

Bob J. Zehmer

Cannabis Cannabis Sativa L. 1753, is a plant from the family of Cannabaceae, order of Urticales. Its origin and evolution are quite controversial in the scientific community. Specifically, the dispute bursts about the opportunity to sum up in only one genus all the varieties that are known, or if it would do better to consider each one as different; for example, those called indica and ruderalis. Two eminent scholars, Stanley J. Watson and Robert C. Clarke, are inclined to include all the varieties in the species of Sativa except for those that are cultivated in Afghanistan and Pakistan exclusively for hashish production, which should be cataloged in the Cannabis indica group. Certainly, cannabis was born in central Asia, and then brought to Europe and America. By some archaeological excavations in China, we learned of a small heap of seeds in a leather purse aged 2500 years. The old age of this species is quite sustained by the word Ganja, which appears in ancient Sanskrit. Again on some botanical features, it’s helpful to know that the germination time is in the Spring, it begins to bloom late in summer, and, as regards the pollination, it occurs upon wind conveying. In Autumn, it’s possible to see the achenes each one containing one seed. The plant can grow over 16 feet high – 5 meters – but it usually stands 5 to 6.5 feet – 1.5 to 2 meters. Marijuana and hashish can be extracted from indica or sativa either, and likewise from the hybrid ones.

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Marijuana consists in the dried flowers of the female plant, while hashish consists in the resin obtained after thrashing the desiccated cymes, which is then pressed and compacted. Many proposals surfaced in the 1930s about the industrial use of hemp, of which the most prominent was Henry Fordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hemp Car, the legendary Ford T. This car model exploited cannabis at the most of it; hemp built and hemp fueled. More utilizations of cannabis were for finding a valid substitute for plastic materials and paper. On the other hand, petroleum began taking over worldwide, despite it was far more dangerous than cannabis for the environment. The mighty William Randolph Hearst, the biggest publisher in the US by the time, a real king of mass media, turned the paper for his magazines out of wood by employing large quantities of solvents that he bought from Du Pont industries. The magnate and the chemical company entered into an alliance against hemp, raising hell by Hearstâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newspapers, which blamed marijuana of the most heinous crimes at that time. Yes, they called the hemp by using the Mexican word marijuana. Given that United States had come lately out of a conflict with Mexico about border strife, it was quite easy to swim with the tide of scorn and grudge still fuming all around the Country. Nobody in the US knew the word then, so the trick worked like the way it was meant to be; it just blighted enough. Public opinion was acquainted with cannabis as an industrial item and soft sedative; it was renowned for driving people hilarious, never violent. Medical use of hemp was then common, as a matter of fact. Another argument for Hearst and Du Pont industries was given by the state of default that the Country was living. All that 36

Bob J. Zehmer

resulted in the Marijuana Tax Act, endorsed by the Congress in 1937, which definitely banned rich in resin and poor in resin cannabis cultivation. In other words, either one of the species was not to be cultivated. Now, we know very well how things went with reference to the environment and geopolitical stability, thanks to using oil and wood to make paper, and more of course. Besides, a certain prohibition policy, and a repressive stance imposed by such a common surly capitalist attainment, might have caused cannabis consumption as a dope, propagating far and wide, with the collateral damage of the trafficking. Not to mention that such repressive laws, have been bereaving us of a mort of industrial, civil and medical uses that hemp may offer. As regards the Tetrahydrocannabinol, that is the active principle, i.e. the psychoactive substance we find in the plant of cannabis, also called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), «C21H30O2» or dronabinol, was separated by Yechiel Gaoni and Raphael Mechoulam in 1964 at Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. For sure, its effects are subject of vibrant disputes within the scientific community. Some maintain that THC causes addiction – even though in the long term – it gives rise to respiratory pathologies and mental disorders, and when it is being consumed along with alcohol, drives the individual to violent behavior. Doctor José Javier Fernández, professor at Universities of Barcelona and Madrid, and former president of International Cannabinoid Research Society ICRS, is absolutely against medical uses of cannabis; alternatively, he agrees synthesis cannabinoids.

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The other way round, some scientists sustain that THC is excellent at curing various illnesses, at fighting over abstinence from opium and alcohol, and at soothing in the pain treatments. The so-called psychoactive reaction, originates from the female flowers – that’s what is commonly named marijuana – and its resin – or hashish – through high temperatures during the manufacturing process, or when smoking; in fact, the molecule of the compound – THC – gets altered favoring its inhalation by the organism. It is so possible to observe a marked cheerfulness, wellbeing sensations, a good team spirit and participation in recreational activities, and – contrary to what it is experienced by alcohol consumers – no violent instinct comes into view. Nonetheless, it’s right to denote that wellbeing sensations may be ephemeral, especially in unfamiliar subjects who may even incur dizziness and nausea, and it is also frequent to get paranoid feelings up to anguish, instead of thoughtlessness. A study from Oxford University 2 affirms, «There were no significant differences in cognitive decline between heavy users, light users, and nonusers of cannabis». The medical journal The Lancet 3 , published a scientific investigation in 2008, reporting cannabis use to be less dangerous than nicotine, alcohol and benzodiazepine (substances that have Constantine G. Lyketsos, Elizabeth Garrett, Kung-Yee Liang and James C. Anthony Cannabis Use and Cognitive Decline in Persons under 65 Years of Age - American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 149, No. 9: 794-800. 1999 3 The Lancet, medical weekly peer-reviewed (founded in 1823 by Sir Thomas Wakley). Chen AL, Chen TJ, Braverman ER, Acuri V, Kemer M, Varshavskiy M, Braverman D, Downs WB, Blum SH, Cassel K, Blum K Hypothesizing that marijuana smokers are at a significantly lower risk of carcinogenicity relative to tobacco-non-marijuana smokers: evidenced based 2

Bob J. Zehmer

sedative, hypnotic, anxiolytic, anticonvulsant and anesthetic effects). Professor David Nutt, from Bristol University, and chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs ACMD, in the UK, confirms that cannabis is less dangerous than nicotine. He also pointed out that ranking cannabis from class C to class B, comparing it with amphetamines, it is nothing short of a political decision, since there is no scientific justification. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of trees, plants and bushes in the wilderness that are poisonous for human beings, but whoever would dare wage war against those vegetable species? Let physicians decide whether cannabis is a remedy or not for human illnesses, no need to argue that medical use is quite a different thing from smuggling and misusing. On the other hand, all the practical uses of hemp â&#x20AC;&#x201C; industrial and civil â&#x20AC;&#x201C; need to be checked again, in the wake of the newest achievements, most recent technologies, and our capacity of wise management. We know how to avoid cultivations from being only narcotics factories for the benefit of criminals. If a sustainable development is a must, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foolish to give up.

on statistical reevaluation of current literature. J Psychoactive Drugs 2008; 40(3):263-72. 39

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Close-up of a cannabis inflorescence

Cannabis seeds

Keef ready to be smoked

Bob J. Zehmer

UNODC, World Drug Report 2010 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime gives an annual report on narcotics records all over the world. 4 It is a significant reservoir of information for who wants to get hints on these arguments. Though this essay, right not to forget, is focused on production and trafficking ‘in and from’ Morocco, you are now going to be given a list of the main source Countries of cannabis resin in the period 2006–2008 as follows: Morocco 21%, Afghanistan 8%, Central Asia 6%, C.I.S. excl. Central Asia 5%, Pakistan 5%, Spain 5%, India 5%, Netherlands 5%, Nepal 4%, Lebanon 4%, Jamaica 3%, Turkey 3%, Iran 3%, Albania 2%. Table 23, page 184 of UNODC 2010 report – information on the extend of cannabis cultivation – reads (updated 2008): 64,377 hectares of cultivated area in Morocco – of which 4,377 hectares have been eradicated – net harvestable area 60,000 hectares, which means a production of 877 metric tons of resin. Well, on the previous report – UNODC 2009 – we find table no. 9 on page 91. It shows the same harvestable area of 60,000 ha, giving the herbal production of 43,850 metric tons, and still remarking – footnote no. 5: «Herbal production, which was calculated from the reported resin production of 877 mt, refers to gross cannabis production and is not necessarily directly comparable to herbal production of other countries». Out of curiosity, we may say that resin yields in Afghanistan reach 145 kg/ha, four times higher than in Morocco, where we have 36 kg per hectare as measured in 2005. To be more realis4 UNODC, World Drug Report 2010 (United Nations Publication, Sales No. E.10.XI.13)

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tic, hashish production in Morocco is thought to outrun 2,000 metric tons. It also must be said that information on Morocco is provided by the same Government, which induces many experts to affirm it is not reliable evidence. In fact, it is widely thought that the most literal proof keeps being what Spot 5 – European satellite – revealed in 2003, that is over 130,000 ha of cultivation, giving out far greater quantity of hashish than aforementioned, which is being poured in West Europe and – on the decrease – in North America. Yet again, these data are valid for a part of the Rif mountains and are not exhaustive. It is not strange to believe, indeed, that some plantations may be found in the south, in particular after the default situation of the agricultural business, causing some farmers to turn their cultivations into cannabis fields, as hashish is far more demanded than any other vegetable. UNODC report also shows the price trend. In Spain, adopted Country for Moroccan hashish, one gram sells more or less US$ 2 wholesale and about US$ 7 retail. In Italy US$ 3 wholesale and US$ 13 retail. In Germany US$ 3.5 wholesale and US$ 8.5 retail. In France a little bit more than US$ 2 wholesale and US$ 7.5 retail, that’s to say more or less the same prices we find in Spain. Well then, we’re about to get amazed at reading prices in UK: roughly US$ 1.80 per gram wholesale and some of US$ 5 per gram retail! This means that cannabis trafficking goes gangbusters, and massive loads are dumped upon Her Britannic Majesty’s land, supposedly not only from Morocco. In Russian Federation one gram can be bought for US$ 13 wholesale and US$ 27 retail, in Belarus US$ 5 wholesale and US$ 20 retail.

Bob J. Zehmer

While for North America we can read data from Canada, where one gram of resin costs US$ 7 wholesale and US$ 20 retail; to find the price in the US, we have to look it up in the UNODC report 2009 – page 228 – in which we learn the price of one gram in the retail market for US$ 100, in 2006, and a cool US$ 9,000 per kg wholesale, in 2007. Last, we report information on Japan where it reads US$ 15 per gram wholesale and the princely sum of US$ 43 per gram retail. Insomuch as cannabis is the most widespread drug, and information is so scarce, it is quite difficult to quantify its production. UNODC informs that in 2008 cannabis herb production may have ranged from 13,300 to 66,100 metric tons, and from 2,200 to 9,900 of hashish. As regards the cultivated areas, we have 200,000–641,800 hectares. What a high level of uncertainty! About seizures, it notifies 6,587 metric tons of cannabis herb worldwide – of which 222 metric tons in Morocco, and a goodly 336 in Nigeria – and again 1,637 metric tons of resin, being Spain number one with 683 metric tons. By the way, on June 2008, in the province of Kandahar, Afghanistan, the biggest seizure ever made couldn’t escape remark, 236.8 metric tons at one scoop. Hashish seizures are reported also in Algeria, 38 metric tons, and Egypt, 13 metric tons, and it shows these are welltrodden routes by the traffickers, the way we will learn hereinafter. As regards consumers, the report shows they are around 30 million in Europe, of which 21 million reside in Western Europe, and they sum up to 29,500,000 in North America.

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We have between 128,910,000 and 190,750,000 persons worldwide that consume cannabis, the difference of over 60,000,000 is given by those that use it occasionally, and it corresponds to 2.9% and 4.3% of population aged 15-64 (people of working age). It is the most widely consumed illicit drug in the world, and it is right to point out that, while in Europe and North America the consumption is lowering, it is massively increasing in Latin America. In Asia and Africa, we have no reliable data, still experts sustain consumption is growing there too. The three European Countries with the highest use rate are the Czech Republic 15.2%, Italy 14.6% (5 million consumers, the widest population) and Spain 10.1%, being the estimate appraised considering people of working age (15-64). Regarding Italy, the government offers ratings that are lower than 50% upon swanking over excellent results after harshening the law; nonetheless, experts are of different thought. The annual average – worldwide – related to each consumer, without distinguishing between hemp and resin, is from 60 up to 200 grams. This leads to evaluate a demand between 9,000 and 51,000 metric tons, of which 10% to 17% is consumed as hashish. According to what just mentioned, we can get the values of required production yearly of some 13,300– 52,400 metric tons of herb, and 2,200–9,900 metric tons of resin. The aforesaid large consumption and inaccurate data, do not consent to organize a homogeneous and systematic fighting policy by the Countries as it does for cocaine, opiates and ATS (amphetamine type stimulants).

Bob J. Zehmer

UNODC report illustrates that even though cannabis is the first drug to be used, produced and seized, transnational crime associations are dropping their involvement off, and so it is for transoceanic trafficking, which only shows, if anything, that there would be a decreasing trade. It’s right to tell that indoor and outdoor cultivations are increasing, even in many advanced Countries, among which the United States stand out. Again, the report spells out that cannabis can also induce psychotic-like symptoms in users. Not only, on page 132, we can read, “the most probable adverse effects of cannabis use include dependency, increased risk of motor vehicle accidents, impaired respiratory function, cardiovascular disease and adverse effects of regular use on adolescent psychosocial development and mental health.” 5 Up to 2009, it was the most largely psychotropic substance in use in the US, followed by opiates and cocaine. At last, we signalize that Africa with its 63%, and Oceania 47% are the continents that have the highest rate of patients under treatment upon using cannabis, with reference to the total population consuming drugs and resorting to detoxifying medical cares. Also in Europe, consumers undergoing treatment for cannabis addiction are raising. We now pass to give some information from UNODC report 2009 so as to have a very clear picture of the whole thing. The world drug report 2009 does relate of 811 seizures of hashish in Morocco, figuring 440,747 kg. Besides, the same study reveals that, being Morocco the main world producer of cannabis, Moroccan authorities intercepted only 209,445 kg in 2007, just 4% of all herbal seizures, which amount to 5,557 metric tons for all producing Countries by then. 5 Hall W., and Degenhardt, L., “Adverse health effects of non-medical cannabis use,” The Lancet, Volume 374, Issue 9698, Pages 1383. 2009

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Concerning resin seizures Morocco stands for 118 metric tons, equal to 9% and first African Country, just behind Spain, which outdistanced all the others by catching 653 metric tons, equal to 50%! In 2007, we can globally count catches for 1,300 metric tons of resin, of which 849 metric tons (two thirds) in West Europe, mainly coming from Morocco – in addition to a smaller amount from South West Asia – and for 418 kg of hash oil. Pretty oddly, whereas we have evidence of seizures in 2002, 2003 and 2005, for a total amount of some 151,000 kg of cannabis plants, Moroccan government failed to offer data for 2004, 2006 and 2007 (page 49, World Drug Report 2009, document Seizures). We want to note that UNODC report 2009, at page 296, informs that, “The Government of Morocco, in cooperation with UNODC, also conducted surveys on illicit cannabis cultivation and cannabis resin production in 2003, 2004 and 2005.” Just for example, in 2004 we had had 6,539 metric tons of marijuana seized worldwide (it was the peak before 2008); while in 2007 1,295 metric tons of hashish caught worldwide. Yet again, as to hash oil, we have seizures of 6 kg in 2003, and 47 kg in 2005, but there’s no seizure in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2007. The reader, quite rightly, might wonder, “Why on earth there is no information about the turnover?” Well, as aforesaid, it is quite hard to obtain reliable data on cannabis. In accordance with world estimates, organized crime draws US$ 1 billion from trafficking in arms, 32 from human smuggling, 65 from opiates, 88 from cocaine. Well then, which profits cannabis trafficking might ever generate?

Bob J. Zehmer

Remaining at Moroccan hemp and resin, some surveys sustain it originates US$ 12 billion earnings, of which only 220–250 million dollars for the farmers. We can’t help but notice the enormous disproportion; later we’ll see how this enormous river of money splits, and which are the characters that come into play.

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Geography of trafficking and a tip of history … [omissis]… This is just two chapters excerption from Bob J. Zehmer’s reportage Kif, Hashish from Morocco. It has been published as an e-book by eBookIt Publisher, USA, December 2010 In the book are reported original interviews from police officers and drug-dealers which reveal startling details The e-book is available all formats @ eBookIt.com and all most important stores in the Internet @ Amazon @ Kobo @ DittoStore @ Barnes&Noble @ eBookMall @ Powell's Books Click upon the store you like to reach it Visit Author website at www.bobjzehmer.com

Ketama, Cannabis fields by night

About the author

Bob J. Zehmer – scholar of economics and social sciences – is an independent economist and works as a business consultant for various companies in Europe and America. Very fond of literature and rock’n’roll, he published the novel Blue Opera Rock in 2009 and the long poem Gist & Zest in 2008. Zehmer is always on travel, and when he gets the chance to stay he lives in UK, Spain and Italy.

Kif

Bibliography

Bob J. Zehmer

Bibliography 9 Alan Keohane, The Berbers of Morocco, Elmtree Africana, Viking Penguin, USA, 1991 9 Michael Brett and Elizabeth Fentress, The Berbers: The Peoples of Africa, Blackwell, USA, 2001 9 Tassadit Yacine, Amazikilogia y renacimiento cultural de Africa, Entretien, Africo-Amasik, pp. 3-52, 1986 9 Tassadit Yacine, Women, their space and creativity in Berber society, Race, gender & class, vol. 8, 3, pp. 102-113, 2001 9 Amin Maalouf, Samarkand, Interlink Publishing Group, New York, 1998 9 Laurence Lockhart, Hasan-i-Sabbah and the Assassins, University of London, London, 1930 9 Bernard Lewis, The Assassins: a Radical Sect in Islam, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1967 9 Michael A. Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qur'an, Mi'raj, Poetic and Theological Writings, Paulist Press, USA, 1996 9 Ibn Al-Rawandi, Islamic Mysticism: A secular perspective, Prometheus Books, USA, 2000 9 Sula Benet, Early Diffusions and Folk Uses of Hemp, Vera Rubin, Mouton Publisher, The Hague, 1975 9 The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, Marijuana and the Bible, Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, 2007 9 Chris Bennett, Judy Osburn , Green Gold: the Tree of Life Marijuana in Magic & Religion, Access Unlimited, 1938 51

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9 Jaques Derrida, RhĂŠtorique de la drogue, The Rhetoric of Drugs, translated by Michael Israel. Published in Points: Interviews 1974-1994. (1995) 9 David Maraniss, They Marched into Sunlight, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2003) 9 Rudolf Brenneisen, Marijuana and the Cannabinoids, Forensic Science And Medicine, 2007 9 Nature Reviews, Neuroscience, Perspectives, Vol. 8, Nature Publishing Group, USA, Nov. 2007 9 Leslie Iversen, The Science of Marijuana, Oxford University Press, USA, 2007 9 Faeti, V., G. Mandolino, P. Ranalli, Genetic diversity of Cannabis sativa germplasm based on RAPD markers, Plant Breeding, 1996 9 Small, E. and H. D. Beckstead, Common cannabinoid phenotypes in 350 stocks of Cannabis, Lloydia, 1973 9 Costa B., On the pharmacological properties of Delta9tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), Chemistry & Biodiversity, 2007 9 Williams & Wilkins, The Botany and Chemistry of Cannabis, Baltimore, 1970. 9 Robert Connell Clarke, Marijuana Botany: Propagation and Breeding of Distintive Cannabis, Ronin Pub., USA, 1981 9 David J. Nutt, Trevor W. Robbins, Gerald V. Stimson, Martin Ince, Drugs and the Future: Brain Science, Addiction and Society, Academic Press, USA, 2006 9 David J. Nutt, Journal of Psychopharmacology Volume 24 Number 2, February 2010 52

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9 Constantine G. Lyketsos, Elizabeth Garrett, Kung-Yee Liang and James C. Anthony, Cannabis Use and Cognitive Decline in Persons under 65 Years of Age - American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 149, No. 9: 794-800, 1999 9 Chen AL, Chen TJ, Braverman ER, Acuri V, Kemer M, Varshavskiy M, Braverman D, Downs WB, Blum SH, Cassel K, Blum K, Hypothesizing that marijuana smokers are at a significantly lower risk of carcinogenicity relative to tobacconon-marijuana smokers: evidenced based on statistical reevaluation of current literature. The Lancet, medical weekly peerreviewed, Psychoactive Drugs 2008; 40(3):263-72. 9 Hall W., and Degenhardt, L., Adverse health effects of non-medical cannabis use, The Lancet, Volume 374, Issue 9698, Pages 1383, 2009

9 Valsamis Mitsilegas, EU Criminal Law, Hart Publishing, London, 2009 9 John Dickie, Cosa Nostra, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2004 9 Edited by G. Fiorentini, The Economics of Organized Crime, Cambridge University Press, 1997 9 Vimal Kumar and Stergios Skaperdas, Criminal Law and Economics, Dept of Economics, University of California, Irvine, 2008 9 Dina Siegel, Hans Nelen, Organized Crime: Culture, Markets and Policies (Studies of Organized Crime), Springer, 2008 9 A report to the Illinois economic development policy conference on the economic impact of policies relating to the cannabis plant and drug prohibition, Conference held on December 12 and 13, 2002 at Illinois State University

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9 Nicaso, L. Lamothe, Angels, Mobsters and Narco-Terrorists: The Rising Menace of Global Criminal Empires, Wiley, Canada, 2006 9 Alison Jamieson, The Antimafia: Italy's Fight Against Organized Crime, Pelgrave MacMillan, USA, 2000 9 Mark Galeotti, Global Crime Today: The Changing Face of Organised Crime, Routledge, US & Canada, 2007 9 Clive Small, Tom Gilling, Smack Express: How Organised Crime Got Hooked on Drugs, Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2010 9 Vincenzo Ruggiero, Nigel South, Ian Taylor, The New European Criminology: Crime and Social Order in Europe, Routledge, USA & Canada, 1998 9 Peter Reuter and Edwin M. Truman, Chasing Dirty Money: The Fight Against Money Laundering, Institute for International Economics, USA, 2004 9 John Madinger, Money Laundering: A guide for criminal investigators, CRC Press, USA, 1999 9 Liaquat Ahamed, Lords of finance: the bankers who broke the world, The Penguin Press, USA, 2009 9 Chris Mathers, Crime School: Money Laundering: True Crime Meets the World of Business and Finance, Firefly, USA, 2004 9 Michael Hudson, Global Fracture: The New International Economic Order, Pluto Press, USA, 2005 9 N. Gregory Mankiw (editor), Monetary Policy (National Bureau of Economic Research Studies in Income and Wealth), The University of Chicago Press, 1994 9 Frederic S. Mishkin, Monetary Policy Strategy, MIT, USA, 2007 54

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9 Raymond J. Michalowski (Editor), Ronald C. Kramer (Editor), State-Corporate Crime: Wrongdoing at the Intersection of Business and Government (Critical Issues in Crime and Society), by Rutgers, The State University, USA, 2006 9 Hans Kelsen, General Theory of Law And State, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, USA; 1945 9 Hans Kelsen, Pure Theory of Law, University of California Press, USA, 1963 9 Lars Vinx, Hans Kelsen's Pure Theory of Law: Legality and Legitimacy, Oxford University Press, UK, 2007 9 Alf Ross, On law and justice, University of California Press, USA, 1959 9 H.L.A. Hart, The Concept of law, Oxford University Press, UK, 1961 9 UNODC, World Drug Report, UN, New York, 2009 9 UNODC, World Drug Report, UN, New York, 2010

You will unlikely find such impressive information about hashish, drug-trafficking and money laundering, rallied in only one book and so clearly expressed. A courageous non-fiction book, an outstanding reportage

About the author Bob J. Zehmer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; scholar of economics and social sciences â&#x20AC;&#x201C; is an independent economist and works as a business consultant for various companies in Europe and America. Very fond of literature and rock and roll, he published the novel Blue Opera Rock in 2009 and the long poem Gist & Zest in 2008. Zehmer is always on travel, and when he gets the chance to stay he lives in UK, Spain and Italy.