Looks like we haven't been able to slow down the narco traffic in Afghanistan

[rainbow4321]

at all. Because we had, Russia wouldn't be asking the US DEA to step in and help stem the drug/money flow from there. Reading the cable, you'd never know that Afghanistan was a country that the US has occupied for 9 years.
The cable is dated February 2010



http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2010/02/10MOSCOW293.html

Summary: On February 5, 2010, DEA Chief of Operations (OC)
Thomas Harrigan and DEA Regional Director (RD) Mark Destito met with
Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) Deputy Director Nikolay
Aulov in Moscow, Russia. OC Harrigan and Deputy Director Aulov
discussed the following topics: utilizing DEA's resources in
Afghanistan to target Afghan based DTOs that are sending Afghan
opiates to Russia; suggestion that the United States apply to become
a "full fledged" country member of the Central Asian Regional
Information and Coordination Center (CARICC) and the FSKN's support in this bid;

(snip)

4.(SBU) Deputy Director Aulov began by discussing the Afghan opiate
problem that the Russian Federation is facing. According to Deputy
Director Aulov, from FSKN's and the Russian Government's point of
view the trafficking of Afghan opiates and their abuse is considered
a "weapon of mass destruction" for the Russian Federation, which is
inflicting great harm to the country and its citizens.



5.(SBU) Deputy Director Aulov explained every day there are
approximately 80 to 150 drug related deaths of Russian citizens,
which can be attributed to the abuse of Afghan opiates. The FSKN is
not satisfied that last year the production of opium decreased to
approximately 6,900 metric tons. The FSKN believes that much more
can be done to decrease the opium production in Afghanistan.
According to FSKN intel, there are enough opiates in storage in
Afghanistan that can supply the demand for the next five years

6.(SBU) The FSKN stated that Central Asian law enforcement
counterparts are not fulfilling their duties in combating the
trafficking of Afghan opiates. The FSKN provided statistics for last
year, which revealed the following: the Tajik Drug Control Agency
seized approximately 1.5 metric tons less than they did in 2008,
Kyrgyz law enforcement counterparts seized 10 times less drugs
shipments than last year, and the situation is no different for
Kazakh and Uzbek law enforcement counterparts. The FSKN is
disappointed with the work ethic and results of all the law
enforcement agencies in the Central Asian countries.

Agent's Note: A new trend that FSKN in seeing is that drug proceeds
are now being sent directly to Afghanistan instead of being sent to
third countries (i.e. UAE, Europe, and Central Asia).

(snip)

18.(SBU) OC Harrigan identified that the DEA has offices in the
following African countries: Lagos, Nigeria, Cairo, Egypt, Pretoria,
South Africa, and Accra, Ghana but the DEA is quickly developing a
close working cooperation with the respective host country
counterparts. As an example, OC Harrigan described the recent joint
investigation between the DEA and Ghana counterparts that led to the
arrest and the extradition of three Al-Qaeda associates who were
involved in cocaine trafficking to the United States for
prosecution.