Hey, they better be careful. we haven't attacked a new country this week...

Commander Blames NATO for Increased Drug Production in Afghanistan

TEHRAN (FNA)- Commander of the anti-narcotics squad of Iran's Law Enforcement Police General Ali Moayyedi blamed the NATO forces for increased drug plantation, production and trafficking in Afghanistan.

"NATO's presence in Afghanistan has not only contributed zilch to campaign on drugs, but also multiplied production of narcotics, exactly to the opposite," Moayyedi said in a meeting with Head of Tajikistan's Anti-Drug Agency here in Tehran today.

He added that Iran's anti-drug measures along borders with Afghanistan have forced drug-traffickers to use other routes including Tajikistan, which, like Iran, shares lengthy borders with Afghanistan, to smuggle narcotics.

Moayyedi said that Iran and Tajikistan are trying to boost their cooperation and interactions against the harms that they sustain and the threats which are posed to them from their borders with Afghanistan.

Eastern Iran borders Afghanistan, which is the world's number one opium and drug producer. Iran's geographical position has made the country a favorite transit corridor for drug traffickers who intend to smuggle their cargoes from Afghanistan to drug dealers in Europe.

Iran spends billions of dollars and has lost thousands of its police troops in the war against traffickers. Owing to its rigid efforts, Iran makes 89 percent of the world's total opium seizures and has turned into the leading country in drug campaign.

The Iranian police officials maintain that drug production in Afghanistan has undergone a 40-fold increase since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

While Afghanistan produced only 185 tons of opium per year under the Taliban, according to the UN statistics, since the US-led invasion, drug production has surged to 3,400 tons annually. In 2007, the opium trade reached an estimated all-time production high of 8,200 tons.

Afghan and western officials blame Washington and NATO for the change, saying that allies have "overlooked" the drug problem since invading the country 10 years ago.

In relevant remarks in November, Head of Russia's Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov also blamed the US for a major part of the narcotics smuggled from Afghanistan to his country, saying that the volume of the drug cargos destined for Russia will decrease after the withdrawal of the US forces from the war-stricken country.

"I am convinced that the flow of (Afghan) drugs to Russia will decrease as soon as Americans withdraw from Afghanistan," Ivanov told the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

Ivanov, who had also previously criticized the anti-drug measures taken by the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, strongly hailed the US withdrawal scheduled for the end of 2014.

He also said that more than 100,000 people aged 15-34 died of drug abuse in Russia in 2011.

Ivanov said earlier that 30 tons of drugs, mostly from Afghanistan in the form of heroin, are trafficked into Russia annually.

Link:
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107141938