Illegal drugs has a market of US $ 400 billion a year. It makes upto 8% of global trade. Imagine this, textiles make up 7.5% of global trade and motor vehicles only 5.3% of global trade. Hence illegal drugs is bigger than many a well established form of trade. On top of that 80% of money from trade moves from and into official bank channels mostly lodged in tax havens around the world. Is it any surprise to note that most of these illegal offshore banking companies are owned by the Anglo American enterprise (AAE)? Read my earlier article how Britain was the biggest drug dealer of the world in the 18th century and how Chinese opium saved it from economic collapse. (CLICK HERE FOR THE ARTICLE)
Ask yourself a few fundamental questions?
a) Is the world economy in a serious recession and can the AAE overlook a commodity that is 8% of global trade (albeit be it illegal drugs)
b) Where is most of this opium grown now?
c) Who is in charge of the opium syndicate and are CIA / MI6 etc in cohoots with ISI and Dawood Ibrahim regarding this? Why Dick Cheney and Dawood can do business together?
For two independent views on point (c) above, read these articles:
i) Dawood Ibrahim fits the billing for one of Cheney’s “unsavory” intelligence sources - Wayne Madsen
ii) Afghan Opium And Terror In South Asia - Ramtanu Maitra
iii) Why the CIA does not want Dawood to fall into Indian hands - Jeremy R Hammond
Understand then how much can the AAE really push Pakistan and Taliban without it not getting into a far bigger economic mess than they are already in? And hence, what are the real Indian options?
The Afghan poppy and Taliban:
Opium provides 70% of the funding to Taliban. Hence if you were to cut Taliban, you will cut its financial umbilical cord – the production of opium and its sales.
However the efforts of AAE has been patchy at best. The only agency trying hard are the DEA, but it can do so much in a hostile territory if the AAE forces are aligned to the economic rationale of nation building (their own nations) and not serious about poppy eradication.
The opium produced in Afghanistan has shot up from USD 4 billion/yr to USD 10 billion. It is ¼ of Pakistan’s GDP. ISI, through its progeny the Taliban, control over 80% of Afghan poppy trade.
Al Qaeda and ISI have broken into as much as one – third of Moroccan hashish trade with the help of Dawood Ibrahim.
CIA stated explicitly – if you want to know what is in the mind of Osama bin Laden, you will have to understand the mind of Dawood Ibrahim.
Such is the stature of Dawood that he is an asset not only to ISI and Pakistan, but to Al-Qaeda and also to AAE who need his network to route real money into their collapsing banks and shrinking economies.
This is the reality that faces Indian policy makers and they should factor in these realities. Otherwise Dawood funded Lashkar e Taiba will threaten India, carry out blasts after blasts and all India can do is seethe in anger but follow it up with ZERO action on ground.
How the funding actually works:
80% of Afghanistan’s 200 m tons poppy grows in Taliban controlled regions.
a) Of the avg selling price of US$ 86/kg – Taliban levies a 10% tax called “ashr”. This is taxed at farm level and gives Taliban upwards of $56 million
b) There are more than 50 refineries in Taliban regions. Taliban collects $250 /kg of refined heroin. In 2006, 666 m tons of heroin were refined, which gave Taliban US$ 133 million
c) The Taliban also earns upwards of US$250 million a year providing armed protection for drug shipments through its area.
Interesting to note: Both Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar have 3000 tons each, of opium hoarded.
Islamic Law and Opium:
Islamic law forbids taking drugs but not growing them.
Logic : Opium is allowed as it is consumed by infidels in the West and not by Muslim Afghans and it keeps the fire of jehad alive from money given by infidels who buy the narcotics.
Pakistan, ISI and the Opium trade:
70% of the world’s high grade heroin is produce in and / or smuggled through Pakistan. Trucks that carry in heroin from Afghanistan are run by National Logistics Cell (NLC). NLC are wholly owned by the Pakistan Military and hence these trucks are never checked at the borders. These trucks carry weapons for the Taliban on their journey into Afghanistan and on return carry drugs from there which go either straight to Karachi or Gwadar port.
From Gwadar port powerful motorboats packed with heroin and hashish set off pursuing a course for 210 degrees on a south-westerly heading and sailing for 7 hours @ speed of 12 knots. Using Thuraya satellite phones these speedboats rendezvous with larger dhows in the Arabian sea and return to Pakistan.
Some important chronological events:
It all started with Operation Mosquito – one little mosquito can drive a bear (ref: Russia) crazy. The idea was to flood the Russian market with Afghan opium and ensure a nation of addicts at huge cost to Russian society and heath care costs. Russians themselves, when in control of Afghanistan, also tried selling drugs to West, one of its several shipments got busted around Europe too.
1983: A young Pakistani smuggler was arrested in Norway carrying 3.5 kgs of crystal heroin. He was Hamid Hasnain, President Zia ul Haq’s personal banker.
June 1986: A Pakistani Army Major was arrested while driving from Peshawar to Karachi carrying 220 kgs of high grade heroin. Two months later an Air Force officer was caught with a similar amount and he claimed it was his 5th mission!
In both cases the Pakistan military swiftly removed its men from police custody and before any investigations could start, let alone trials, the two officers made highly suspicious “escape”.
1988: President Zia ul Haq’s pilot Maj. Farooq Hamid was arrested in drug charges and released. At that time Lt. Gen Fazle Haq was known as Pakistan’s Noriega for providing protection to the heroin trade.
October 1990: Pakistan’s para military Frontier Corps (FC) near the Afghan – Balochistan border stumbled upon the world’s biggest heroin seizure – 2 tons of crystal heroin and 9 tons of hashish. The incident was buried after calls to “high placed federal officials” by a cartel of Pakistan’s heroin dealers referred to as “Quetta Alliance”. The three men accused in the seizure were granted bail in the local court before they were even arrested. 8 top counter-narcotics officers in Quetta SIMULTANEOUSLY applied for 4 months leave of absence and the Inspector General of FC was transferred immediately.
THE HOAX1996: Islamabad announced that its anti-drug agents had intercepted 2 tons of brown sugar in S-W Balochistan. Foreign diplomats were invited to an elaborate ceremony to watch the Pakistanis set the drug ablaze. Just before they did, the US agents took a sample and as expected turned out to be a huge pile of dirt with traces of opium. The then Clinton administration denounced the seizure as a HOAX.
1997: DEA agents arrested a senior Pakistan Air Force officer trying to sell 2 kgs of heroin in a Mc Donald’s outlet in New York City.
In the same year a Thai diplomat got nabbed carrying two suitcases filled with heroin into the UK. He told his British interrogators that he picked up the suitcases at an ISI safe house !!
Yunis Khalis ((1919- July 19, 2006):
It was Yunis Khalis who gave Osama bin Laden refuge in Afghanistan. Haji Bashir Noorzai (now in US custody) fought under Yunis Khalis and owned a madrassa in Maiwand. Interesting to note that the Taliban emerged from this madrassa in Maiwand. Under Khalis was Haji Abdul Qadir – his nom de guerre was Mr. Powder. He ran Khyber Airlines from Jalalabad to the Gulf – carrying drugs in logs and carpets to Gulf and bringing in arms for the Taliban on return journey. Mullah Omar fought under him. Today Sirajuddin Haqani’s network is aligned to this group. To know about Taliban and Al-Qaeda, other than Dawood it is important to understand the functioning of this group and its tentacles. All important characters are under this banner !
Note: It was Pakistan, UAE and S. Arabia that gave legitimacy to the Taliban government in Afghanistan. The Sheikhs came in private jets to Kandahar or on Pakistani side of the border in Balochistan. They actually did come to hunt the Houbara Bustard – an endangered bird but it is prized in Arab communities as an aphrodisiac. Most of these flights did transport weapons and materials to Taliban & Al Qaeda and flew out heroin.
NOORZAIIn fact Haji Bashir Noorzai brokered a deal for UAE Defense Minister Sh. Md. Bin Rashid al Makhtoum, who later took over as the ruler of Dubai.
THE RULER OF DUBAI - MAKHTOUM (Did not stop this royalty to be in bed with Noorzai and Dawood)
Bustard hunting trips were heaviest in spring plantation season of opium and just after the fall of harvest.
Note: Just a few days back, I was seeing in news that a UAE embassy staff was being interviewed for having business dealing with Dawood which he was trying to explain to the audience. Please have the narco – weapons angle into consideration and make an informed decision as to why UAE staffers or royal family members need to have any connection with Dawood Ibrahim.
Shah Hussain:
One brother of Haji Juma Khan is Shah Hussain, who runs his operations from a nondescript travel agency in Jinnah road in Quetta. For safe passage of drugs through Quetta, he pays hefty bribes to the Pakistan Military Intelligence Corps Commander and to ISI Colonel based in Quetta. For his service, Shah Hussain has received MI & ISI identity cards so that his vehicles carrying drugs would not have trouble passing through checkpoints manned by police and anti-narcotics force. He has 12 different passports from Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.
In fact Haji Bashir Noorzai’s papers were hand delivered to him by ISI including his many passports.
The incidences of drug lords getting ISI supplied paperwork and passports are too large to write in an article.
Suffice it to say – Pakistan today is a full fledged narco-terrorist state.
17 comments:
Fabulous jotting the dots together. Another excellent on BuA. Look forward to your articles. Thanks.
Simply brilliant !!!
Narco terrorist state or not, Pakistan has India by its balls with Byzantine strategy:
I. Avoid war by every possible means, in all possible circumstances, but always act as if war might start at any time. Train intensively and be ready for battle at all times -- but do not be eager to fight. The highest purpose of combat readiness is to reduce the probability of having to fight.
II. Gather intelligence on the enemy and his mentality, and monitor his actions continuously. Efforts to do so by all possible means might not be very productive, but they are seldom wasted.
III. Campaign vigorously, both offensively and defensively, but avoid battles, especially large-scale battles, except in very favorable circumstances. Don't think like the Romans, who viewed persuasion as just an adjunct to force. Instead, employ force in the smallest possible doses to help persuade the persuadable and harm those not yet amenable to persuasion.
IV. Replace the battle of attrition and occupation of countries with maneuver warfare -- lightning strikes and offensive raids to disrupt enemies, followed by rapid withdrawals. The object is not to destroy your enemies, because they can become tomorrow's allies. A multiplicity of enemies can be less of a threat than just one, so long as they can be persuaded to attack one another.
V. Strive to end wars successfully by recruiting allies to change the balance of power. Diplomacy is even more important during war than peace. Reject, as the Byzantines did, the foolish aphorism that when the guns speak, diplomats fall silent. The most useful allies are those nearest to the enemy, for they know how best to fight his forces.
VI. Subversion is the cheapest path to victory. So cheap, in fact, as compared with the costs and risks of battle, that it must always be attempted, even with the most seemingly irreconcilable enemies. Remember: Even religious fanatics can be bribed, as the Byzantines were some of the first to discover, because zealots can be quite creative in inventing religious justifications for betraying their own cause ("since the ultimate victory of Islam is inevitable anyway …").
VII. When diplomacy and subversion are not enough and fighting is unavoidable, use methods and tactics that exploit enemy weaknesses, avoid consuming combat forces, and patiently whittle down the enemy's strength. This might require much time. But there is no urgency because as soon as one enemy is no more, another will surely take his place. All is constantly changing as rulers and nations rise and fall. Only the empire is eternal -- if, that is, it does not exhaust itself.
"Interesting to note: Both Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar have 3000 tons each, of opium hoarded"
BRO, u on opium too? u cant keep refined and seal-packed opium more than 2 yrs!!!! what? he freezes it? yet i doubt it can hold so long. U think this is gold for him to hoard?
lol
taliban controls the narcotrade-
there is no single taliban unit as u say BRO. all are different factions and more and more splinters created by the day. each group got its own territory. so the total may be $250mil but its not all this money is collected by one or two powerful taliban groups. this 250 mil may be divided between 250 taliban and tribal gangs which means each gets $1mil. and $1 mil is not a very big amount to constantly buy ammo, upkeep big houses of the "leading family", maintain harem with a few dozen women, bribe karzai's convoy, carryout occassional suicide bombings, pay their henchmen to threaten the local populace, buy drugs for self consumption etc etc.
please get your factcs right.
My facts are watertight. You may want to dilute by diff factions but we are talking of 3 and at best 4 major groups. Rest are "bribed".
The fact of 3000 tons of opium each is stored in form that can last for a v long time :)
And my facts are 100% correct.
yes, you can say I have not talked about Prez Karzai's own brothers role in drug trafficking. As far as I am concerned its like this - the CIA and the rest are all into drug trafficking too.
But the real threat is Taliban - hence its imp to retain focus there.
i am anon above.
1. please tell me this form of opium that can be stored for many years. i really want to know. the only one i can think of is frozen but i dont believe it is so easy to freeze 3000 tonnes of opium in a country like afghanistan (the power required for freezing, the equipment and maintenance, and the room). please share some sources and i will buy your story.
2. what are this 3 to 4 "Major Groups" bro? If you do a research you will find that different (and often independent) groups rule different localities. Whenever there are more than 1 group in one area (eg groups in Sanghin Valley, Laskhar Gah) they have conflicting views driven by greed to dominate all the opium harvest money. as such they fight and kill each other. and its often the case that allied troops bribe out some groups to attack the other (this is a british ingenious technique that worked wonders on their conquest of malaya and many other colonies). so point is here to no sharing of proceeds.
3. maybe i can believe that all these talibans sell their produce to one or two sources (but cannot confirm anyway). which may include pakistani and us agents.
4. you caught my drift on karzai & co although i discretely included it in my message
5. taliban are not as "smart" as you think. all are bunches of fruitcakes fighting for the whimps and fancies of everybody else other than islam. their motivation is money and cheap thrills of ruling the roost since they otherwise are jobless and chew qat, smoke hookah all day.
6. all in all you argue the accuracy of your facts by just confirming they are 100% with little more substance. not good.
cheers.
"But this year around 6,900 tons was produced, with 7,700 tons delivered last year and more than 8,500 the year before that. Map showing where Afghan opium is going »
"So if the world only needs around 4,000 tons of opium and a further 1,000 is seized, where is the rest of it going?"
According to Kemp, world demand for opium remains stable yet prices are not crashing, which suggests a large amount of opium is being withheld from the market.
"Our guess is that around 12,000 tons of opium has been stockpiled somewhere -- not all in one place but in and around Afghanistan," he added. "So while production might be coming down -- mostly because of market reasons -- there's still a lot of product around to satisfy demand for about two years."
It is unclear exactly who is responsible for this but there's growing evidence, according to the U.N., that the Taliban are becoming increasingly involved in the industry and could be sitting on huge stockpiles of opium to use as credit for financing their activities.
"Farmers will be keeping small amounts back as credit for things such as a dowry or buying livestock," said Kemp. "But they won't have the means to store supplies in the kind of quantities we're talking about here.
"It's probably in the hands of people with the ability to store it underground and to keep people away from it through corruption or force."
Hakan Demirbuken, a research expert on the U.N.'s Afghan Opium Trade Program, said Taliban involvement in the drugs trade is not limited to taxing Afghan opium farmers and traders in return for their "protection."
He told CNN: "Last year we estimated that Afghan poppy farmers earned around $730 million, while traders who take the product on to the border earned around $3.4 billion."
"From this lucrative business the Taliban took around $125 million in tax.
"But according to U.N. figures they need around $800 million per year for their operational needs."
To the Anon questioning the 3 - 4 major Taliban groups:
The Taliban official claimed that after some bitter experiences, such as when Mullah Abdul Razzaq, a former Taliban interior minister, engaged in dialogue with the US on his own, and some differences over operational matters between the slain Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Omar, Mullah Omar set up a broad-based command council. All those fighting under the flag of the Taliban were given representation on this council, even if they were not too close to Mullah Omar, with the idea being that nobody would be indispensable to the resistance.
In this manner, former mujahideen commander Sirajuddin Haqqani - something of an outsider to the Taliban - became a member of the council, as did Moulvi Abdul Kabeer. Kabeer was a governor of Nangarhar province during the Taliban regime but his allegiance to the movement was often questioned.
full of much around. early this month was revealed that some politicians helped harbour IM terrorist of 08 delhi bombings shahzad alam. it was apparently a mumbai based politician (probably dawood's man who sabotaged the plan) and a delhi based ex-mla. even that terrorist's uncle refused him shelter. ok so now point is crime branch / home ministry has not released anything on thee 2 politicians. they have not been charged although the terrorist has already named them. shouldnt they be revealed? or has it been conveniently swept under the carpet because everyone's hands have been greased????
i respect p chidambaram a lot and think he is a sincere person who i can see is really getting things pertaining to internal security in order very well. however i dunno why these influential persons are still on the loose for harbouring a known terrorist
teri behan nu mara lun, behan choda Pakistan teri behan nu choday ga... begherat
Linking terrorism with any country is
illiteracy
Pretty helpful piece of writing, thanks so much for your post.
So, I do not really think this will work.
I really appreciate it, I visit more often for updates, keep up the great work!
teri maa ko lun bhen chod do teri
india or Bangladesh ko lun do sala Bangladesh ki maa chod do main
Post a Comment