Jane's intelligence review says LTTE controls a portion of Montreal's USD 1b drug trade

Citing Royal Canadian Mounted Police sources the Jane's Intelligence Review said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controls portion of US Dollar one billion drug market in the Canadian city of Montreal. The Jane's Intelligence Review said that one of the main ways of earning money out of its USD 200-300 million annual income of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is narcotics smuggling using its merchant ships, which also transports illicit arms and explosives which they procure all over the world for a separatist insurgency in the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka.

"The LTTE's chief trade in Asia is reportedly heroin trafficking, although no verifiable evidence has been produced. According to Prof. G H Peiris, the LTTE secures the Golden Crescent-Europe route and possibly routes out of the Golden Triangle", the report said.

The 'Golden Crescent' is the name given to Asia's principal opium producing area encompassing three nations, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan whose mountainous areas define the Crescent. In 1991 Afghanistan became the world's primary opium producer with a yield of 1782 metric tons surpassing Burma which produced 800 metric tons in 2002.

The 'Golden Triangle' is one of Asia's two main illicit opium producing areas of 350,000 square kilometres that envelops the mountains of three countries of mainland South East Asia, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. Opium is a narcotic drug yielded from the latex from the seed pods of the plant, Papaver Somniferum.

Quoting a US Congressional report the Jane's intelligence Report said, "The US Library of Congress stated in its October 2003 report, Nations hospitable to organised crime and terrorism, that the LTTE then alternate their routes involving transportation back to coastal areas of Sri Lanka or Tamil Nadu, where its naval forces can secure smuggling operations."

The Jane's report further said, "Although the LTTE is unlikely to be involved in street-level distribution of heroin, it is possible that LTTE-affiliated street gangs may be involved in lower-level distribution. The RCMP claims that a portion of the USD1 billion drug markets in Montreal is controlled by Sri Lankans connected to the LTTE."

During the recent taking over of the Thoppigala mountainous area from the LTTE, the last complex of military camps they held , the Sri Lanka Security Forces discovered tons of sacks , nicely packed with dried leaves of Marijuana or Ganja (Cannabis Sativa) indicating their importance for the existence of the separatist group as a money earner.