BISHKEK - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime officials say narcotics finance the war machines used in Afghanistan and the region.
They told a two-day seminar the UNODC organized this week in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, that drug smugglers and mafia earned $68 billion annually from narcotics produced in Afghanistan.
Hashim Wehdatyar, UNODC spokesman based in Kabul, told Pajhwok Afghan News on the sidelines of the conference that they conduct surveys and research aimed at investigating cultivation, trade and smuggling of narcotics in Afghanistan.
He said bulk of the $68 billion income ($65 billion) from drugs went to international drug mafia gangs and Afghan growers and smugglers only pocketed about $3 billion. “ A major part of the money ($3billion ) ends up in hands of insurgents and criminals who finance their activities with the drug money.”
He said diseases and incidents linked to drugs consumption claimed 200,000 lives each year while terrorist attacks killed 32,000 people in the same period, calling drugs more dangerous for humans than terrorism. But despite this, he said, terrorism had been preferred over drugs
Media representatives from Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan attended the two-day seminar and shared their experiences and ideas on countering the menace. (Pajhwok)