Source : Bangkok Post, Thailand, 15 Mar 2010
By : Chaiwat Satyaem
  

MASS DESTRUCTION: a large quantity of confiscated sassafras oil is burned in Cambodia.

The sassafras oil, or safrole-rich oil as it is commonly known, comes from the Cardamom mountain area, one of the last forest wilder- nesses in mainland Southeast Asia.

Ecstasy is made from these oils, which contain safrole levels of more than 80%. They are first converted into chemical precursors before being used in clandestine ecstasy labs. Safrole and its derivatives have many legal uses as well, mainly in the fragrance and pesticide industries. It is also a traditional medicine in China and parts of Southeast Asia, and is applied externally to treat skin diseases and rashes. In Vietnam it is primarily used as a furniture polish.

The illicit distilling of sassafras oil in these mountains is slowly but surely killing the forests and wildlife, Mr Bradfield told Spectrum.

The production of sassafras oil is a huge operation, which affects not only the area where the distilleries are located, but ripples outwards, leaving devastation and destruction in its wake, he added. The livelihoods of more than 15,000 people who depend on hunting and gathering to survive in the wildlife sanctuary are at risk from the sassafras production operations.

Cambodian sassafras oil is highly sought after as it is of the highest quality - containing more than 90% safrole, according to the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Cambodia, Lars Pedersen. It is a major pre-cursor drug used in the production of ecstasy, and massive amounts of sassafras oil are smuggled every year into Vietnam and Thailand from Cambodia, he said. Sassafras oil is made from the roots of the rare mreah prew phnom tree - also known as Cinnamomum parathenoxylon. The roots are first chopped into small blocks and shredded into fibres. These are then put into large metal vats two metres high and about three metres wide. It is distilled over a hot wood fire for at least five days before the gas is cooled and the oil extracted.

	SUCCESS: MoE rangers sit atop barrels of confiscated sassafras oil.

"The tree [mreah prew phnom] is very rare, and is beginning to disappear because of the illegal distilleries in the Cardamom mountains," Mr Bradfield said. "The production of sassafras oil over the last 10 years has severely depleted these trees and if the illicit production isn't stamped out soon, they could become extinct in the near future," he warned.

The whole process of producing sassafras oil attacks the bio-diversity of the area. The trees are felled and the oil extracted from the roots. The large vats need substantial amounts of wood to maintain the fires, so the trees surrounding the distilling factory are felled to stoke them - so other species of trees surrounding the distilling factory are also being depleted.

Deep in the jungle, the factories are heavily guarded. Each usually has two or three distilling pots on a bamboo platform. More than 30 workers are needed to maintain the stills, including armed guards. Several days journey from any village, these workers live on the wildlife in the area. Many are also involved in commercial poaching. Rare animals like tigers, pangolins, peacocks, pythons and wild cats are caught, as well as wild fowl.

The populations of these animals in the wildlife sanctuary are also being depleted by the illegal sassafras oil distilleries. "Sassafras oil processing plants are usually located besides streams to provide water for boiling and cooling the distilled oil," Mr Bradfield said.

"The oil leaks into the streams, causing yet more environmental damage. There are frequently dead fish and frogs floating in the streams near the distilleries."

The water from this area flows down into the rest of Cambodia through the Mekong and Ton Le Sap rivers. "Water tests in the area need to be carried out as a matter of urgency, he suggested. I cannot imagine that this water [contaminated with sassafras oil] can be safe for villagers downstream to drink," he said.

OUT OF BUSINESS: A sassafras distilling factory in the Cardamom mountains.

So far no tests have been carried out on the affect this water has had on the villagers living downstream from the distilleries. "But it's certainly killing the fauna and flora in the vicinity of the factories," he said.

Five years ago, the Cambodian government made the production of sassafras oil illegal in an effort to protect the mreah prew phnom tree. Since then the authorities have tried to eliminate the illicit factories in the Cardamom mountains with the help of international organisations. "Law enforcement is the key to suppressing the illegal trade in sassafras oil," the local UNODC chief, Lars Pedersen, said. "It's a very lucrative trade," he added, "worth millions and millions of dollars."

Some 50 rangers from the Cambodian Ministry of Environment (MoE) are now policing the area with the support of independent conservation groups and the UN. "These rangers are the foot soldiers protecting the forests," Mr Bradfield said.

"They are the heroes of the protection effort."

The soldiers spend half the month patrolling the Cardamom mountains. "They operate in thick, leech-infested jungle, risking their lives every day for a paltry salary," he said, adding that the distilleries they are trying to find and shut down are well guarded by mercenaries carrying AK-47s. "The factories are also often booby-trapped with anti-personnel mines."

	TASK FORCE: MoE rangers and Cambodian Army troops on patrol.

The FFI has supported the rangers for years - they provide their uniforms, equipment and training. They also help build ranger stations and continue to give technical advice. The United Nations Development Fund also supported the project between 2004 and 2006.

The rangers are certainly on the frontline in the government's efforts to stamp out the illicit trade in sassafras oil. But their task is made all the more difficult because of the potential profits smugglers can make from the trade.

In October, 2007, Thai customs officials seized three containers holding more than 50 tonnes of safrole-rich oil in an eastern border port in Thailand near the Cambodian border. "Each container had 80 drums, each weighing more than 200 kilogrammes, ready for shipment abroad," Pithaya Jinawat, the deputy secretary-general of Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) told Spectrum. The oil had a safrole content of between 80% and 95%, according to the Thai officials who seized it. The exporters had tried to conceal their consignment by declaring it "sassafras oil" on the manifest in order to avoid detection, according to the Thai officials, but its distinctive and pungent smell attracted their attention.

CAPTURED: The top of one of the factory’s distilling pots.

Two of the containers were on their way to China and the other was destined for the US, according to Thai anti-narcotics agents. That single seizure was reported to be worth $500,000. But if it made its way to China and the US, where it may have been used in the production of ecstasy, it would have produced 7.5 million tablets worth than $150 million, according to a western anti-narcotics agent.

This was the first seizure of sassafras oil in Thailand. China and Vietnam remain the main importers, and while both countries were major producers of the oil in the past, production has declined significantly in China since increased controls were introduced in 2005, while Vietnam prohibited the production of safrole-rich oil in 1999 because of the damage it caused to the environment.

Most of Cambodia's illegal sassafras oil production is smuggled across the border into Vietnam, according to the UNODC chief in Phnom Penh. The illicit stills in the Cardomans were run by shady Vietnamese businessmen with strong connections to the police and politicians in Cambodia, a local NGO worker who declined to be identified told Spectrum. Some of Vietnam's imported sassafras oil is re-exported, and much of that may end up being used in the production of ecstasy.