Russia suggests making up a black list of drug lords

Russia suggests drawing up a black list of drug lords, on which the names of several Afghan officials could be. This was stated by the director of Russian Drug Control Service or FSKN, Victor Ivanov on Tuesday.

According to Ivanov, Afghan officials, including those in the government are involved in the drug production and trafficking along with the Taliban leaders.

FSKN director noted that Russia had discussed the issue with officials from the European Union and the US two years ago. He said that Russian special services have information about those who had been involved in drug trafficking from the Afghan territory. This list contains more than 40 Afghan citizens.

Victor Ivanov reminded about anti-drug measures that had been taken by the Collective Security Treaty Organization, CSTO. “To intercept drug trafficking from Afghanistan the heads of the member countries of the CSTO adopted a decision to conduct anti-drug-trafficking operation code named Kanal,” Victor Ivanov said. “The officials from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan participated in the operation in 2003. But this year, representatives of law enforcement agencies from Azerbaijan, China, Latvia, Lithuania, the US, Ukraine and Estonia were involved as observers in the operation besides the member states of the CSTO,” FSKN director said.

Earlier, reports said that Afghan officials had been involved in the drug production and trafficking. Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali was one of the first to reveal this. But the Minister had to resign shortly. Experts believe that several MPs, senators and field commanders could be among the drug lords on the black list. Moreover, it has been said more than once that several foreign countries, including some NATO members are most likely involved in drug trafficking.