The head of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service, Victor Ivanov, has recently said that the policy pursued by NATO in Afghanistan doesn’t help to fight against the production and distribution of heroine in the country effectively. Speaking to a meeting of the service’s senior officials, he said that 35 tons of Afghan-made heroin had been sent to the Russia annually, and the share of heroin from Afghanistan in the Russian drug market had been 90%.

According to Victor Ivanov, NATO forces have focused on fighting against the militants of the Taliban movement and do nothing to eliminate drug business of local people. “There is a need to emphasize that the Taliban movement’s share in drug production is a small fraction, but at the same time NATO command has focused on fighting against this minority-producer leaving the provincial authorities to fight against the rest, 99 percent of production,” the head of the FDCS said.  

Meanwhile, last week, the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, Igor Shcherbak proposed to hold an international conference on countering Afghan drug threat at the level of the heads of relevant services by the end of the year. He urged all countries to establish close cooperation to intercept supply canals of precursors, which is used to make heroin from opium.      

At the same time, Afghan Anti-Drug Ministry plans to make greater efforts to detain illegal drug smugglers and to prosecute them. This was stated by the press secretary of the ministry, Zalmai Afazali, at a news briefing on Saturday.

According to the press secretary, the ministry hopes to promote cooperation with the Interior Ministry and the National Security Agency to fulfill the task.

According to UN reports, Afghanistan is the world’s largest supplier of poppy. The supply of drugs to the world market from Afghanistan has increased several times since the start of the anti-terrorist operation in the country.