Khat, cont...

Harvey Kushner, director of the criminal justice department at Long Island University, dedicates a chapter of a new book to raising alarm about why American law enforcement has chosen to virtually ignore a booming illegal industry almost entirely controlled by Middle Easterners from countries identified as terrorist safe havens.

In his book, “Holy War on the Home Front,” Kushner calls for a congressional investigation into why America’s homeland security bureaucracy has not given top priority to an estimated $1.5 billion khat smuggling industry into the U.S., which produces an illegal cash flow back to Great Britain, Somalia, Kenya and Yemen.

British counter-terrorism experts say their country has in recent years become a hotbed for Islamic extremist groups that advocate killing Americans, recruit suicide bombers and raise money for terror operations. U.S. intelligence agencies have identified Yemen, Kenya and Somalia as havens for terrorist networks, particularly for Al-Qaida.

In 2000, for instance, Al Qaida operatives blew up the USS Cole after it docked at a Yemeni port, killing 17 American servicemen. In 2002, the CIA piloted an armed drone into Yemen and blew up a car full of suspected terrorists. Kenya, also a major khat producing country, is where Al Qaida operatives in 1998 blew up the American embassy and in 2002 aimed shoulder-fired missiles at a departing Israeli passenger jet and also attacked an Israeli resort in Mombassa. In 2003, an Al Qaida plot was foiled to re-bomb the new American embassy in Kenya using a planeload of khat ostensibly headed for Somalia.

“You don’t have to make a quantum leap to link drug smuggling from the Middle East, to Middle Eastern communities and …the great possibility of that funding terrorist conspiracies, both here and abroad,” Kushner told CBS-11 in a recent interview. “It’s certainly known worldwide that Osama bin Ladin was dealing with the (heroin) trade in Afghanistan … coming into this country. It’s great cash flow. It’s hard to trace and it’s quick money to support terrorist activities.”

But, Kushner explained, “It’s not being prosecuted” in the U.S., where federal agents and street-level cops most often think they’ve come across some kind of salad when they accidentally discover khat.

“There needs to be a congressional investigation as to why, after 9-11, there hasn’t been a crackdown on khat coming into this country. When one looks at Yemen, khat is almost the largest export from that particular country. Why aren’t we looking at this drug?”

Interviews with U.S. and North Texas law enforcement authorities support Kushner’s contention. There is no concerted program to interdict khat at America’s international airports, where it is most often accidentally found arriving via Great Britain in luggage, by air freight or in the international mail. No one appears to keep track of how much khat is seized nationally on its way to U.S.-based immigrant communities of Ethiopians, Yemenis, Somalis and others.

Officials of Her Royal Majesty’s Customs and Excise Department said most of the seven tons per week legally imported into Great Britain comes from Somalia, Kenya and Yemen.

But interdicting khat smuggling aboard U.S.-bound flights is not a priority because khat is considered a legal vegetable, classified as a bean in Great Britain, said Jan Marszewski, a spokesman for the British customs agency. The only interest Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise Department would have in khat would be if it were discovered to be mislabeled, a minor crime.

“To be honest,” Marszewski said. “The kind of stuff that takes priority are the Class A drugs like heroin and cocaine.”

Few outside the insular transplanted immigrant communities from the Horn of Africa and parts of the Arab Middle East even know what khat is. The leaf is probably best known in the U.S. as the ingredient that fueled the deadly true-life events portrayed in the movie “Blackhawk Down.” The movie depicted a 1993 battle between American troops and khat-fueled Somali insurgents, their teeth blackened from the drug. Drug experts, as well as those who use khat, say the leaf does not impair motor skills but rather creates a mild, amphetamine-like euphoria that heightens senses and self-esteem.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration warns that khat can be psychologically addictive and has been known to cause aggressive behavior and feelings of paranoia among chronic users.

Federal authorities with jurisdiction over the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and North Texas acknowledge making regular discoveries of khat - by happenstance. In fact, more than 2,800 pounds of khat has been seized at D/FW since 2000. Applying a commonly used rule of thumb that most commodity seizures represent only 10-percent of what actually gets through, an estimated 14 tons of khat could have made its way through D/FW Airport. Drug dogs are not trained to ferret out khat.

CBS-11 News has learned that North Texas customs enforcement investigators broke up a sophisticated khat-smuggling ring at D/FW Airport in 2003. The operation involved a local airline employee, conspirators in Great Britain and North Texas-based distributors. As a major refugee resettlement city, Dallas is home to thousands of Somali, Ethiopian and North African immigrants.

But rather than federally prosecute those who get caught supplying these local communities with khat, authorities opt for a slap on the wrist and sometimes a fine.

“We really work very hard to prioritize our limited resources to get the most bang for the buck,” said Ken Cates, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas-based Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “And again, while there is a technical, criminal violation for the importation of khat, it’s not the highest priority that we have here in the United States right now.”

Chuck Svoboda, chief of U.S. Border and Customs Inspection at D/FW Airport, said his agents routinely find relatively small loads of khat in luggage carried by European passengers. As recently as October, November and January, khat was found in the international mailroom at D/FW, mislabeled as toys or gifts. But he said there is no mandate from Washington D.C. for his group to look specifically for khat.

“Usually, if you open a suitcase and you find a banana leaf, you’ll find khat. It’s pretty obvious,” Svoboda said. “Research indicates that they’re still doing the same thing, smuggling it into places like New York, Chicago and the Midwest, and that’s because they have a lot more international flights coming in than we do.”

Only one federal prosecution for khat can be found in North Texas. British citizen Peter Asquiths was sentenced in January 2001 to an eight-month prison term after U.S. customs officials caught him at the airport with two suitcases stuffed with khat. Asquiths fits the profile of a typical khat “mule,” someone paid to transport an illegal commodity.

Abdulkadir Araru, a Kenyan journalist based in London, has written extensively about khat. He said he has chewed it for 25 years and once was employed as a “clearing agent” who helped transport the drug into Canada before that country criminalized it in the late 1990s. Araru said his group would fly students in to Great Britain, where they would pick up large suitcases packed with khat then fly it home to Canada for about $1,000 round trip.

Araru said young white British mules are used now to haul loads into the U.S. and probably get paid about $2,000 on average to make the trip. Such smugglers are considered not as likely to draw attention as would someone of Middle Eastern descent.

“There is lots of money in it,” he said, adding that the price goes up once it crosses into illegal American territory. “Compared to other serious drugs, it’s very, very marginal, but of course for anyone who is carrying it or selling it, you’ll make good money. There are quite a number of chewers in the United States: the Arabs and Somali refugees and more refugees from Ethiopia.”

Kushner and others say khat should be re-prioritized at the top levels of federal, state and local law enforcement so that training and education can trickle down to the street cops along with orders to look for it.

Sgt. Ben Cassuccio, a Columbus Ohio police officer who is part of a federal drug task force, said he has waged a lonely crusade to draw attention to khat smuggling in his part of the country. He said few U.S. drug labs are even capable of testing khat, a prerequisite in preparing a criminal case, and the testing cost of $250 is prohibitive for prosecutors. Conducting drug stings for khat would require a top-down mandate, he said, because infiltrating the highly insular, closed-knit Somali communities where the drug is consumed in Ohio is extraordinarily difficult.

Sgt. Cassuccio said he believes the best way to put a dent in the khat trade problem is for Great Britain to criminalize it, and then interdict passengers before they board U.S.-bound aircraft. The sergeant said he has pleaded with the British consulate to consider the issue but has gotten nowhere.

“My issue is what are you guys doing over there? You’re (expletive) us up here letting this stuff in,” Sgt. Cassuccio said.

In fact, the British government has placed khat in review for possible criminalization, but moving forward would likely provoke an angry political backlash from within large populations of immigrants who consider khat an integral part of their culture.

Sgt. Cassuccio said he has run into similar difficulties persuading the Ohio Attorney General’s office to take a tougher stand on khat.

“It’s the old problem of follow the money,” the sergeant said. “I’m sure it’s financing some things over there. Show me one illegal drug where the proceeds don’t go back to some criminal enterprise. But getting anyone interested is the challenge.”