Iran tired of fighting and losing drug war ‘on behalf of West’
World Focus / World Focus
26-Jan-2010 (one comment)

Iran is trying to tackle a rising drug problem, as opium continues to
pour into the country from neighboring Afghanistan to the east.

Al Jazeera
English’s Alireza Ronaghi reports that Iranian police have seized
over 400 tons of drugs and have lost dozens of police officers in the
battle to eliminate drug abuse in Tehran.

But some Iranian officials say that arresting drug dealers and users
is almost pointless in the face of the huge quantities imported to the
capital every day.

At a recent drug control conference in Tehran, the head of Iran’s
anti-drug task force, Brigadier-General Hamidreza Hosseinabadi, criticized international organizations and Western
countries for not cooperating.

>>>
recommended by IranMilitaryForum.net

Balatarin
Share/Save/Bookmark

 
default

Another interesting related article

by IranMilitaryForum.net on Tue Jan 26, 2010 08:30 AM PST

Afghan drug lords look West via new routes Roman Kozhevnikov DUSHANBE Mon Jan 25, 2010 6:19am EST

addImpression("10036173_Related News"); removeImpression();


addImpression("10036174_Related News (Auto)"); Related News removeImpression();



DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Afghan drug lords are smuggling more heroin
through Iran to Europe, easing the burden on a traditional trafficking
route through ex-Soviet Central Asia, Tajikistan's drug control chief
said in an interview.

World

With a long, leaky border with Afghanistan and lawlessness inherited
from a bloody 1992-1997 civil war, Tajikistan has long been a haven for
drug smuggling out of Afghanistan which produces nearly all of the
world's opium, used to make heroin.

Rustam Nazarov, head of Tajikistan's state Drug Control Agency, told
Reuters in an interview the picture was now changing as Afghan drug
runners turn their attention to an alternative route through Iran.

"Starting last year drug smugglers are now exploring, with a large
degree of success, a new supply route for Afghan drugs to the Russian
market," he said. "The new route goes through Iran, the Caucasus region
and then on to Russia."

Russia, which is a huge market for Afghan heroin with its population
of 142 million, is a key stop in the route linking Afghanistan with
lucrative Western European markets.

Impoverished Tajikistan, which the International Crisis Group said
last year was on the road to "failed-state status", has been
increasingly under strain to combat trafficking, a worry for the West
concerned with stability in Central Asia.

Nazarov said Iran, already long used by Afghan smugglers, has become
particularly popular after relative stability returned to northern
Afghan provinces that border Tajikistan.

That has forced poppy farmers to focus more on the opium growing
heartlands in the violent south and look for ways of bypassing Central
Asia for smuggling drugs to Europe.

"The amount of drugs seized (in Tajikistan) in 2009 is noticeably
smaller than in 2008," Nazarov said, adding that some 4.5 tonnes of
illicit drugs were intercepted in 2009.

Tajikistan says it seizes two-thirds of drugs passing through its
territory, but some Western diplomats are skeptical, saying the number
is closer to as low as 10 percent.

In Afghanistan, persuading farmers to ditch opium poppy -- which
fuels the Taliban insurgency -- in favor of other crops such as wheat
is a major objective for NATO allies.

Last year, the United States spent about $300 million on agriculture
projects there and projected spending this year is more than $425
million, not including separate funds from U.S. military coffers handed
out by troops in the field.

For tiny Tajikistan, the shifting trend represents a relief, yet Nazarov said he was bracing for another tough year ahead.

"Unfortunately the drugs situation in our country and the region as
a whole solely depends on the situation in Afghanistan," he said. "Only
when there is law and order in Afghanistan there will be law and order
in our country."

//www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60O25F201001...



  •