Plan to make drug traffickers pay up

Press, 12 March 1985, Page 19

Plan to make drug traffickers pay up

From

THOMAS LAND

in Paris

Legislation to provide for the judicial seizure of the financial assets of drug traffickers may well be introduced shortly in several European countries. Co-ordinated action is being sought by the governments of 14 Council of Europe countries backed by the United Nations. A judicial committee of inquiry in Britain recently declared its support for such reform after four years of deliberations.

Europe’s law makers may thus follow the example set by Australia, which passed legislation in 1979 obliging people convicted of serious drug offences to prove the legal origin of their assets. As one European chief-of-police put it at a recent conference: “I

think it would have a deterrent effect if drug dealers went to court knowing that they could lose their cars, houses and finances — as they do in Australia and the United States.”

A comminique issued after a ministerial conference in Paris of the Pompidou group of countries identifies the tracing and confiscation of the financial assets of drug traffickers as the top priority. Other priority areas include the improvement of methods used in the treatment of addiction, particularly in the case of the “high risk” young, as well as measures to combat drug trafficking on the

high seas. The Pompidou group was formed in 1971 at the suggestion of the then President Pompidou of France to seek a common approach to addiction. Its members are Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and West Germany. Their accord represents an important new departure. Many have hitherto ignored the persistent call made for some years by the United Nation’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs to create the conditions for the forfeiture of the drug profits of

convicted traffickers. The commission is concerned that money and other assets gained by trafficking are often used to finance further black market activities. One of the first countries of the group to act may well be Britain where the Home Secretary, Leon Brittan, has promised legislation to fight “the alarming upsurge in the abuse of dangerous drugs” by “depriving drug-smugglers of the proceeds of their crimes.” Mr Brittan recently received a closely argued 160-page report, compiled by an independent committee of inquiry under a high court judge, recommending such reform. The committee was set up amid public outcry greeting a ruling of the House of Lords — the

highest legal authority of the land — that the courts lacked the power to confiscate the profits of a drug ring smashed in Operation Julie. The committee included several top lawyers and policemen, a distinguished criminologist, and a former probation officer. It sought urgent change in the law enabling criminal courts to make confiscation orders depriving criminals of the profit of their crimes and to freeze assets before trial. Third parties — such as the wives of criminals — could also be affected.

The street value of drugs would be considered as an indication of the size of illegally acquired assets. — Copyright — London Observer Service.