dose deaths over the last 4 years of considerable significance. The overdose deaths decreased from 150 a month in this country to 35 or less a month at the present time.

The injuries decreased from 1,500 a month to approximately 700. The purity decreased from 6.6 percent to 3.5 percent, and the sum is now showing a slight increase; and the most recent quarter indicates a 3.8 percent of heroin purity.

We do see changes in these sources of opium which is required to produce heroin. The chart here reflects principal opium-producing countries some five years ago, when Mexico was producing within its boundaries by illegal traffic some 70 tons; Afghanistan, 150; Pakistan, 200; and the Golden Triangle, 450 tons of raw opium.

In the Golden Triangle, much of that was consumed in Thailand, Burma, Laos, and Southeast Asia. Some of it was shipped to the United States and Western Europe. And in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran at that time, most of the opium was consumed by the addict populations of those countries.

Mexico-the 70 tons converted into somewhere between 5 to 6 tons of heroin that came into the United States in 1975-76-that was the principal source country; now the Government of Mexico has done an outstanding job of decreasing heroin availability within their borders and into our borders.

They embarked upon a program to storm the poppies and the poppy fields before the opium gum could be collected and heroin conversion could take place.

Recently-in the most recent analysis, 1979-we have seen the results of the Mexicans' eradication program, so that perhaps only 10 tons of illegal opium were produced in that entire country, and those are in small fields and canyons, at times masked with camouflaged— with other crops. A tremendous change.

The Mexicans' eradication program has been, more than any other single factor, the reason we have fewer people dying in the United States from heroin.

We have had good investigative efforts by our agents and State and local law enforcement, by Customs, and other Federal and State investigative agents with interdiction responsibilities; but, Mexico is stopping the drugs at the source and that is the key.

In Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, however, we have seen a bumper crop last year. The instability of those countries has added increased fuel to this fire, and we are very concerned that the very large scale production of opium in these countries will not only inundate Europe, but the overflow will come into the United States.

Perhaps 2 years ago, no more than 8 percent of the heroin was from the Southwest Asian countries identified here. Last year, 17 percent as estimated by the National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee; this year, perhaps 35 percent will be from this part of the world.

We have lost two listening posts in that part of the world, and liaison officers in Teheran-Jack Greene, was stationed in Iran for some time-our agent that was in charge of that office, along with other personnel from DEA, have had to leave that country as the liaison point for narcotic purposes. Our office in Afghanistan, also, was closed in December.

So we are not in direct liaison with the governments of either country, nor collecting firsthand intelligence, nor exchanging the type of training programs that were possible heretofore.

In Europe a year ago, most of the heroin traffic was from Southeast Asia, 75 to 80 percent of it was Southeast Asian. The traffic was by ethnic Chinese and other organizations. In the last year, the Southwest Asian heroin has dominated the market in Western Europe. Over 85 percent of the heroin that is sold in Western Germany and other European countries, Italy, the United Kingdom, and France, derives from the Southwest Asian raw opium.

The overdose deaths in Western Germany are twice that of the United States, and they have 25 percent of our population.

The involvement of some Iranians has been noted. They have entered the United States and ports of entry in Europe with both raw opium and refined heroin. We have embarked, with local law enenforcement, to monitor this situation, particularly in New York where we have seen a number of retail purchases of heroin reflect not Mexican brown or Southeast Asian, but Southwest Asian signatures. The U.S. Government has taken a number of initiatives and Attorney General Civiletti, I think, should be commended for his personal involvement in seeing that we have a Government-wide program. In conjunction with President Carter in February of this year, he held a national briefing for State and local law enforcement officials and each State attorney general telling them: "We are not flooded with Southwest Asian heroin; we may never be; but we do have a serious threat; and here's what the administration is going to do."

We are going to have Cabinet-level attention to the problem. We are utilizing the State Department's ability to participate in international forums and to increase heroin as a priority on our missions to Germany and Turkey and Pakistan. The United States Customs Service and DEA are increasing their efforts at ports of entry. We have targeted six cities where we believe the Southwest Asian heroin will first arrive New York, Philadelphia, Newark, Boston, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.-and we are also monitoring an additional number of cities in the southern, central, southwestern and far western parts of the United States.

We are increasing our representation in Europe with two new positions in Frankfurt, Germany, and one in Turkey; and we are trying to increase the interdiction capacity of our agency, since we are not able to work at the principal source location.

Mr. DRINAN. Would you point out the seizure locations on the map? I don't see those.

Mr. BENSINGER. I'd be happy to.

We may have a chart on the seizures; if we don't, I think my memory will serve:

Heroin Laboratory Activity 1979-1980

Using this chart, the last seizures that have been made of heroin actually converted in Europe would include two principal laboratories in Italy-Milan, and one right by the French border; seizures in Turkey which have been identified in the northeast part of the country; in Pakistan, up at the north west frontier; and in Iran where there has been a seizure of a heroin laboratory. We have intelligence reports of heroin labs in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and in the northwest frontier provinces, in the western-northwestern part of Iran, and the northeastern part of Turkey.

We have intelligence that indicates there is the likelihood of a heroin lab in Sicily. This information comes from precursors as well as raw materials for heroin laboratories having been identified in southern France.

Today there was a seizure in Milan of 87 pounds of Southwest Asian heroin destined for the New York area and a number of arrests were made in Italy and in New York within the last 24 hours.

So these [indicating on map 5] are lab locations. And the seizures that have been made, in addition to the laboratories, would have been in perhaps a dozen cities in Germany; a number of seizures in Paris and in London.

Mr. DRINAN. What agencies there would have acted?

Mr. BENSINGER. In West Germany the BKA is the principal criminal agency; in France, it would be the Police Judiciare; in England, both Her Majesty's Customs and the Home Office would be making the seizures.

In the United States, we have had seizures of Southwestern Asian heroin in Boston, in New York, in Dallas, and in Los Angeles; we've had samples and seizures. A significant one was in Washington, D.C.7 pounds of 80 to 85 percent pure heroin from a large trafficking organization in Washington.

So, we are working with our associates along the trafficking route. We are not able to work effectively in the source countries.

We do have a special action program with moneys set aside for the purchase of evidence and information, utilization of the language capabilities of agents trained in Urdu and Farsi and other languages of Middle Eastern trafficking organizations; and increases in intelligence both strategic and operational, which can impact on this problem.

The other major drugs of abuse I'd like to comment on, before we discuss the retail diversion problem, would be the cocaine and marihuana situation.

We've seen a good reduction in heroin availability, clear, uncontested, demonstrated and tracked by price, by purity, by fatalities, and by State and local law enforcement.

We don't have the same report to give you on marihuana and on cocaine.