In recent years, anxiety in Europe has increased about the impact of record opium harvests in Afghanistan, and a decrease in heroin retail prices. This datasheet provides a condensed review of the key issues about how heroin manufactured from Afghan opium reaches European consumers via the Balkan and northern routes.

Table of contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Afghanistan: main producer of illicit poppy
• Heroin entering Europe: the different routes
• The Balkan route
• The ‘northern route’
• European routes
• Alternative routes and new markets
• Traffic of acetic anhydride
• European and international initiatives
• Conclusion
• References