Word: heroines
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...Heroin Rain. Amsterdam has long been a mecca for addicts and dealers because of The Netherlands' wrist-tapping drug laws. But the mounting flow of "horse" through the city has become a narc's nightmare. Says G.J. Toorenaar, chief of Amsterdam's criminal investigation division: "It's raining heroin in The Netherlands." Worse, Europe's swelling addict population is now getting its dope from overseas Chinese gangs that police cannot understand or penetrate...
...market for heroin followed the classic laws of narcotics economy. When the French Connection was cut in 1972, the slack in the American market was soon filled by Mexican heroin, but European addicts were temporarily strung out. At the same time, American withdrawal from Viet Nam cost Southeast Asia's Chinese Tai Los (dope bosses) their most lucrative market. According to one American narcotics expert, "It was simply natural that the twain [Asian supply and European demand] should meet...
...army" of couriers. From the lawless wilds of the Golden Triangle, dried poppy extract travels by backpack, bicycle, mule and even army trucks to crude labs, some in jungles, some in Southeast Asia's sprawling Chinatowns. There chemists refine the caky black powder into two grades of heroin: No. 3, the 40%-50% pure "brown sugar" favored for smoking, and fluffy white No. 4, 90% pure "stuff" for needle addicts. The dope is ferried to Europe by air, ingeniously cached in all sorts of objects-mah-jongg tiles, false-bottom golf bags, hollowed-out melons...
...crack the Chinese Connection because they never made contact with their Chinese communities. Amsterdam police, for example, have only one Cantonese-speaking agent; hired translators face jarring death threats. Among street-level dealers and users, the triads enforce a ruthless code of silence that shields the trade's heroin "Godfathers." Time-tested techniques-infiltration, bribes, informers-have proved almost useless. "They're very closed," says a top French investigator, "and won't deal with anyone with round eyes...
Squealing. In belated recognition of the heroin problem, the Dutch States-General (parliament) this month upped the penalties for heroin possession from four to twelve years. In the short run though, the best hope for snipping the Chinese Connection lies in internecine gang violence. With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, rival triads cannot peaceably split the spoils. At least twelve Chinese have been murdered in vendettas, which began last year with the killing of Chung Mon, a 55-year-old kingpin of the traffic. European narcs are now hoping for the type of squealer's revenge that...