Who stands behind Belarusian drug dealing?

Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s people supervise drug industry.

In Belarus the number of intravenous drug users is about 150,000 persons.

Almost all of them use poppy seeds contaminated with opioids the so-called “bubki”. Drugs are delivered to Belarus without control. As charter97.org has found out, the facts show that the business is covered by Lukashenka’s associates.

Back in 2008 the Centre for Illicit Drugs Monitoring of Hrodna State University openly published the real number of intravenous drug users in Belarus, about 76300 persons. This is official statistics of a state institution.

The figures in 2009-2011 have been classified, and opium poppy was delivered to Belarus even more actively.

The figure of 150000 “bubki” users is just an approximate evaluation of “the market capacity”. Since 2005 the threat swept across Belarus so quickly that it is impossible to ignore this danger.

According to statistics, every intravenous drug user sooner or later transits to use of “bubki”. And many “bubki” users are HIV positive and suffer from hepatitis. Husbands, wives and children of those people are in the risk zone. “Bubki” users drive cars, public transport, and possibly go to the same saunas with other citizens, they steal in order to scrape together for another dose…

If we add the huge number of Belarusian alcoholics (about 600,000) to the number of intravenous drug users, we can speak about genocide of the Belarusian nation.

It is widely known that alcohol business in Belarus is in the hands of “businessmen” and officials who are close to the highest leadership of the country. Facts demonstrate that the drug trafficking is also controlled by well-known Belarusian officials. Whop are these heroes?

Trade Ministry as a wholesaler

Back in 2005 the deputy head of the Directorate for Drug Control and Human Trafficking Counteraction Ramuald Andriyeuski tried to pose the question of solving “bubki” problem, to crush it in the bud. To shut off supplies of contaminated poppy, to shut down the outlets with “bubki” was possible in a matter of few days. Soon Colonel Andriyeuski quietly resigned from his position in the Interior Affairs Ministry. And law-enforcing agencies continued to observe how Belarusians are destroyed by drugs.

The present chief of the Directorate for Drug Control and Human Trafficking Counteraction of the Interior Affairs Ministry of Belarus Alyaksandr Haurylau just makes helpless gestures at press-conferences, allegedly a political will from higher echelons of power is needed. They cannot drive from the dead-lock the imperfect laws. And the KGB does not comment on this issue of “bubki” at all.

However recently a high-ranking official of one of competent agencies (we cannot name him or tell about his position on safety grounds) resolved to tell journalists of charter97.org where the largest lots of “bubki” delivered to Belarus were stored from 2005 till the middle of 2010. They were stored at Belbakaleya joint stock company and Belkakaotorg unitary enterprise.

The source has also noted that the agency which had been hindering anti-drug laws is the Ministry of Trade of Belarus.

And now “watch the movements of the hands.”

JSC Belbakaleya, where the lots of “bubki” were stored, is a subsidiary of the Ministry of trade. Belkakaotorg warehouses are housed by Belkhoztorg, which is also an enterprise representing a part of the Ministry of Trade structure.

Since 2002 Valyantisn Chekanau (the current Minister of Trade) was a deputy executive director of Belbakaleya, and later became the director of this enterprise. This was exactly the period when “bubki” were spreading like wildfire in Belarus.

Chekanau could not be unaware of the fact that giant lots of contaminated poppy seeds were stored at the warehouses. The goods were not sold by bakery enterprises, but were bought by small dealers triple at price.

In 2009 Alyaksandr Lukashenka appointed Valyantsin Chekanau Minsiter of Trade, no one knows for which merits. Avan in Russia and Ukraine dozens of large-scale drug dealers who promoted “bubki” were sentenced and imprisoned. In Belarus not a single (!) large dealer has been prosecuted, and small dealers and drug taxi drivers are still get away clear with fines. What are the roots of such tolerance?