Coalition troops in Afghanistan must start fighting drug industry - Russian drug control head
Russia & CIS Military Newswire - July 2, 2009 Thursday 12:49 PM MSK

MOSCOW July 2 - Drug dealers from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia could be the organizers of Afghanistan's drug industry, while Kosovo criminal groups have become the core drug dealer in the Euroepan Union, according to Russian special services.

Moscow insists that the UN Security Council qualify "the phenomenal production of opium in Afghanistan as a threat to international security," Federal Drug Control Service head Viktor Ivanov said in an interview, published by the Kommersant daily on Thursday.

Since Western troops, except the U.S contingent, are deployed in Afghanistan under a mandate, extended by the UN Security Council each year, their further presence in Afghanistan must be "tied to the condition that these forces will start combating the drug industry," he said.

Russia will not send troops to Afghanistan and it opposes plans to increase the foreign military contingent, he said. "More troops, less stability," he added.

Russia suffers from Afghan heroin more than other countries, and it is a country that consumes, not transits Afghan drugs, Ivanov said

Noting that Turkish groups had recently been the leading drug sellers in the European Union, Ivanov said, "the role of leader has been confidently taken over by the so-called Republic of Kosovo, to be more exact, by Kosovo criminal groups. All of my police colleagues in the European Union confirm that."

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