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Viewing cable 09BUENOSAIRES35, ARGENTINA'S 2008 EPHEDRINE BUBBLE MAY BE POPPED,

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09BUENOSAIRES35 2009-01-09 14:51 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Buenos Aires
VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #0035/01 0091451
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 091451Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2850
INFO RUCNMER/MERCOSUR COLLECTIVE
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 1837
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 1918
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 2376
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 1738
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 1129
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 0222
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000035 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR PGOV PREL PHUM EFIN AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA'S 2008 EPHEDRINE BUBBLE MAY BE POPPED, 
BUT COCAINE STILL MOVING 
 
REF: A. 2008 BUENOS AIRES 1571 
     B. 2008 BUENOS AIRES 1478 
     C. 2008 ASUNCION 702 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  The legal entry into Argentina of 
ephedrine bound for illicit uses appears to have slowed 
substantially by late 2008 following government decrees to 
sharply limit permitted trade in the chemical, though law 
enforcement continues to pursue up to eight metric tons of 
excess ephedrine still thought to be in the country.  On 
December 4, 2008, the GOA issued a decree setting up an 
inter-agency committee to regulate ephedrine and other 
precursor chemical imports.  A September decree had already 
prohibited the importation of ephedrine by pharmacies and 
other retailers.  Argentine law enforcement continues to 
investigate ephedrine trafficking and the related "triple 
homicide" of early August 2008, with the Minister of Justice 
and the head of the Drug Policy Secretariat trading blame for 
the spike in ephedrine last year.  GOA officials are also 
increasingly concerned about new aerial cocaine trafficking 
routes from Bolivia and Paraguay into northern Argentina.  As 
a GOA proposal to decriminalize personal possession of 
narcotics heads toward Congressional consideration, the 
Supreme Court is expected to decide in February the case of 
an individual detained for two days by police for minor drug 
possession, with indications that the Court will rule the 
detention inappropriate.  End Summary. 
 
Ephedrine: Officials Battle Traffic and Each Other 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
2. (SBU) Argentina law enforcement and judicial officials 
continue to investigate individuals linked to a booming 
ephedrine trade in 2008.  Minister of Justice Anibal 
Fernandez has acknowledged that 11.5 metric tons of ephedrine 
entered Argentina in 2008 for no apparent legitimate purpose, 
and law enforcement continues to seek up to 8 metric tons 
thought to be in the country.  Prosecutors and the press have 
focused on the sudden ostentatious wealth of a few suspects 
in the trade, including some linked to Mexican trafficker 
Jesus Martinez Espinoza, arrested in Paraguay on October 4 
(ref c).  Revelations also continue from the August "triple 
homicide" executions of three individuals, including one 
pharmacist, Sebastian Forza, with links to illicit ephedrine 
and also to the 2007 electoral campaign of President Cristina 
Fernandez de Kirchner (to which he contributed).  Rounding 
out the sensational stories of crime related to ephedrine, 
Federal Judge Federico Faggionato Marquez reported that he 
had received threats and was likely the target of a a bomb 
planted at one of his properties on December 18 and detonated 
without injury by the police. 
 
3. (SBU) As reported in refs A and B, different Argentine 
authorities have cast recriminations at each other over the 
2008 ephedrine bubble. Minister Fernandez has suggested that 
the Secretariat of Planning for the Prevention of Drug Abuse 
and Drug Trafficking (Sedronar) failed to exercise control 
over the imports, in part because as an executive branch 
agency with limited resources it was incapable of doing so. 
Monica Cunaro, a prosecutor at the head of a scientific panel 
analyzing drug policy established by Minister Fernandez, has 
lambasted Sedronar for its record of approving suspect 
ephedrine imports and for weak controls over seized drugs. 
Officials at Sedronar had argued previously that Minister 
Fernandez had been slow to approve the draft decrees needed 
to give them the authority to reject suspect imports.  Prior 
to the decrees, they said, they could only approve import 
requests by legally registered businesses, whether the 
ephedrine import made sense or not.  Sedronar head Granero 
has also said publicly that Fernandez and Cunaro want him 
fired. 
 
4. (SBU) A December 4 decree establishing interagency control 
over ephedrine imports by Sedronar, the Ministry of Health, 
and the Ministry of Justice was thus promulgated in an 
environment in which effective cooperation between the 
agencies might be difficult.  Fortunately, a September 17, 
2008 decree banning ephedrine imports by pharmacies and other 
retailers appears to have largely halted the easy import of 
ephedrine into Argentina, perhaps forestalling the emergence 
of a permanent trafficking route through 
Argentina to Mexico and the U.S. 
 
5. (SBU) The Argentine public continues to follow ephedrine 
closely, particularly the investigation into the August 2008 
"triple homicide."  On January 1, detained Argentine Luis 
Tarzia, who was alleged to have been a link between the 
Argentine pharmaceutical importers and Mexican traffickers, 
died of apparent heart disease in police custody.  Although 
no foul play has been seriously alleged, this is the second 
witness in the triple homicide to have died (the first was 
deemed a suicide in August when the associate of triple 
homicide victim Sebastian Forza fell from his apartment 
balcony). 
 
The Curious Case of the Hidden Coke 
----------------------------------- 
 
6. (SBU) The issue of Sedronar's control of decommissioned 
materials became tabloid fodder in December when stories 
broke that Sedronar was being investigated over the discovery 
by a garage mechanic of 8 kilos of cocaine hidden in the 
engine block and under the seat of a small truck it was 
operating, a truck seized in 2007 from a drug bust by Santa 
Fe provincial police.  Newspaper "Critica" went on to dissect 
Sedronar Secretary Granero's suggestion that the cocaine 
might have been left undiscovered from the 2007 bust, quoting 
Santa Fe police officials assurances that they would have 
looked everywhere in the truck after discovering the first 26 
kilos.  Critica also insisted that the cocaine found in 2008 
appeared to be packaged differently from that of the 2007 
bust. 
 
7. (SBU) Minister Fernandez came forward on the record to say 
he doubted any Sedronar officials were engaged in any illicit 
traffic in the cocaine, and, separately, a Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs official involved in counter-narcotics told 
poloff in mid-December that he did not find it credible that 
Sedronar officials would have knowingly taken a vehicle with 
hidden drugs to a mechanic.  That said, he could not quite 
piece together a story about the cocaine that made sense. 
Others have suggested the drugs were a plant to discredit 
Granero and Sedronar.  In the meantime, a federal judge is 
investigating the case. 
 
New Cocaine Threats 
------------------- 
 
8. (SBU) In the midst of close press attention over the 
growth of illicit ephedrine trade in 2008, Argentine 
authorities have also expressed concerns about evidence of an 
increase in cocaine trafficking from the Andean countries 
through Argentina to Europe.  In a briefing to Embassy 
officials on December 18, senior Gendarmeria officials said 
they were concerned over increasing use by traffickers of 
light aircraft to bring cocaine across Argentina's northern 
borders to remote landing strips.  Limited radar coverage and 
surveillance capability, they said, meant that Argentina had 
several large blind spots inits northern provinces, 
particularly a large swath spreading out from the borders of 
Santiago del Estero, 
Chaco and Santa Fe provinces.  One NGO, the Argentine 
Antidrug Association, was quoted on January 4 in newspaper 
"Perfil" saying that there were up to 1500 clandestine 
landing strips in Argentina's northwest, up 50 percent from 
2006, and that 120 flights per day were landing in Argentina 
carrying drugs, accounting for 80 percent of the cocaine 
traffic in the country.  These figures appear speculative, 
but they may reflect a real increase in exploitation by 
narcotics traffickers.  Overall, cocaine and marijuana 
seizures were up in Argentina in 2008 over 2007. 
 
9. (SBU) Although acknowledging the threat of increased 
cocaine traffic, and even that this might increase with 
Bolivia's expulsion of the DEA, Argentine officials are less 
willing to admit the presence of organized cartels managing 
the trade or cocaine production in the country.  Fernandez in 
particular has disputed the idea that cartels are operating 
in the country.  Still, newspaper of record "La Nacion," used 
a December 30 editorial to label 2008 the "year of organized 
crime" in Argentina, raising concerns both about the drug 
trade, rising violence, and also the recently approved 
legislation allowing for the repatriation of offshore money 
without detailing its provenance.  "La Nacion" worried that 
the move signaled a growing convergence of political and 
criminal interests in Argentina. 
 
Decriminalization Advances 
-------------------------- 
 
10. (SBU) GOA officials continue to advocate the idea of 
de-penalizing personal possession of narcotics, including 
marijuana and cocaine.  The proposal, advanced at several 
points in 2008 (ref A), has the backing of President 
Crisitina Fernandez de Kirchner, who argued that the 
Argentine Government needed to redirect resources toward 
pursuing trafficking and treating personal users.  The 
proposal was advanced in the scientific panel headed by 
public prosecutor Monica Cunaro and backed by Fernandez. 
Granero, several opposition legislators, catholic church 
officials and provincial officials from many regions have 
raised concerns about the proposal and the connection of drug 
use to crime increases: the top concern of the Argentine 
public according to recent polls.  Although Congress is 
beginning to seriously discuss how such a law might be 
structured, there is not yet a single government proposal for 
legislation. 
 
11. (SBU) A Supreme Court ruling is expected as early as 
February 2009 in a case brought by an individual detained for 
two nights by the police for possession of marijuana 
cigarettes.  The Court will consider whether police detention 
for minor possession violated the citizen's right to privacy 
under the Constitution.  One Justice, Carmen Argibay, told 
the press that she supported the decriminalization effort and 
thought that a majority of the court would do so and other 
press reports say a majority of the court favor 
non-criminalization of possession of small amounts for 
personal use.  Legal authorities are reportedly concerned 
that a judicial ruling disallowing detention for minor 
possession will cause legal confusion until the law is 
amended to better define penalties - or depenalizing - such 
possession. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
12. (SBU) Unlike other bubbles popped in 2008, ephedrine of 
course does not lack for demand even now.  By tightening up 
import requirements, however, Argentina may have done enough 
to prevent its emergence as a long-term trafficking route for 
the chemical.  Addressing continued cocaine traffic through 
the country will not be so simple.  Decriminalization of 
personal possession would probably not change much the law 
enforcement dynamic for pursuing and prosecuting cocaine 
trafficking, but its effecton personal consumption in 
Argentina absent more extensive public awareness and 
treatment efforts may well be less than salutary. 
 
WAYNE