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Origins of Narco - Terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan
By Sultan Shahin
The region of south-central Asia, particularly Afghanistan and
Pakistan, has gained notoriety as the heart of the international drug
cartel -- perhaps the most profitable business today, even more than
arms trafficking. The poppy fields of Afghanistan have long been a
major bread earner for the country's rural populace and the narcotics
business has been thriving here since the 1950s.
But it gained a tremendous push with the beginning of the Soviet-
Afghan war of the 1979-89, and the region now stands as the single
largest supplier of drugs to the people of Asia, Africa, Europe and
North America. The business began its journey of international
influence as a principal financial support for the Afghan mujahideen
throughout their war with the Soviet Union and retains this role
today for the international Islamic jihad -- also being waged from
this region.
The 'big push' to the trade came in 1980. The hand was none bigger than that of the US
administration, more specifically the CIA, which in connivance with Pakistan's ISI,
Saudi Arabia and local Afghan tribesmen, was wagin
g a proxy war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. According to the facts
revealed in a book Unholy Wars by the American journalist and writer John K Cooley,
the original idea came from Alexander de Marenches, ch
ief of the French secret service SDECE (later the DGSE). Disappointed with US
President Jimmy Carter, who had earlier rejected his idea out of hand, Marenches
suggested to Ronald Reagan(1980- 1987) -- within days of Reaga
n election to the office -- to supply narcotics seized by various American
agencies(the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI , the Customs and the Coast
Guard) to Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan. This would enervate
and demoralise them, and their fighting abilities would be reduced, if not completely
dissipated.
This was actually a part of much larger plan which included supplying false communist
newspapers to the Soviet army with the demoralising tones about the war and even
bibles printed into the Cyrillic alphabet to counter t
heir ideological convictions. The operation was to be called Operation Mosquito, the
reference being to the trouble that a mosquito(drug business) can cause to a bear (the
Soviet Union). Both Reagan and William Casey, chi
ef of the CIA, were more than appreciative of this plan and eager to go ahead. But
when Casey did not give Marenches a guarantee that his role would escape the American
press, the French spymaster withdrew, leaving the wh
ole operation in the hands of America after having seeded the initial idea.
The CIA, it has now been unarguably established, carried on with the plan in spite of
French withdrawal. Fake issues of Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star), the Soviet army
newspaper, did appear in Kabul. So did large quantities o
f hashish, opium straw and packets of heroin, all made easy for the Soviet personal to
buy for nominal prices or as "free gifts" from the obliging Afghan tribesmen,
reminding one of the period before the Opium Wars of the
1840s when the British and the American had supplied free opium to the Chinese
nobility and then fought wars to protect their "right " to sell opium at an exorbitant
prices.
This was only the beginning. The CIA, which had by then roped in Zia-ul-Haq's ISI,
soon also began supporting Afghan fighters who took time off from the war to go home
and cultivate their own poppy and hashish crops, both
seasonal enterprises. Survival of their families often depended on it. They so
successfully exploited their opium and marijuana crops that the drug habit soon took
hold of many officers in the Soviet army. By the mid - 1
980s, this caused the Soviet high command to limit the service of each unit of the
army in Afghanistan to just nine months. But this policy did not prevent addiction
from growing and spreading among the ranks. Indeed, it
actually aggravated the drug problem back home with the returnees from the front
spreading their drug dependency to the streets of Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad and other
Soviet cities.
Soon the operation expanded from the mere Soviet enervation to the proportions of
international trade. A great help to CIA's designs was the National Islamic Front of
Afghanistan (NIF), headed by Syed Ahmed Gilani, an ast
ute businessman and basically a smuggler. According to a book, War in Afghanistan,
compiled on the basis of Soviet intelligence reports, Gilani's NIF had significant
financial resources. Besides the aid from various found
ations in USA, Western Europe and Arab countries, it makes profit on selling drugs and
exacting taxes from the population. Simultaneously, the front carefully cultivated its
image among Western journalists " of a respecta
ble, reasonable, credible political facade," obviously to help American policy markers
carry on their work in Afghanistan with popular domestic support.
Even before the war, most of the opium produced in Afghanistan was smuggled out of the
country and not consumed within. America itself was one of the foremost victims. But
the American information media downplayed Afghani
stan as the country involved in drug trafficking. Later of course, the smugglers even
tasted the glory of being know as "freedom fighters" and their trafficking was termed
"a battle for religion". This satisfied both the
smugglers and the CIA.
By the early 1980s, all close observers of the war knew that the drug smugglers
carried weapons into Afghanistan and took drugs back with them. Heroin laboratories
began to spring up in the rear of various Afghan battlefr
onts. The Soviet book quotes newspaper accounts appearing in Kuwait(which, unlike
Saudi Arabia, was not sending mujahideen for the Afghan war) about Afghan refugee
camps in Pakistan "turning into centres of narco - mania.
" Leader of the Afghan tribes had their men smuggle and sell drugs in Pakistan and
further abroad under the pretext of the need to finance the jihad.
The Rolling Stones, an American Left- liberal magazine, has also reported of a
powerful narco- business network, including vast fields of opium poppies on both sides
of the Pak- Afghan border, created during jihad. It was
"complete with well planned routes and a whole network of dozens of factories" to
process opium into its morphine base and heroin. "Western experts" supervised creation
of the labs in camp of Gulbuddin Hikmatyar's group.
However, "the real King of Heroin is considered to be Gilani who had far suppressed
Hikmatyar in narco- business and controls the overwhelming majority of the operations
of the opium Mafia." The CIA was working closely w
ith both Hikmatyar and Gilani.
The Soviet account also follows US media reports, attributing to the "seven major
mujahideen groups an annual opium production in 1989, at the end of the Afghan war, of
over 800 tons, or more than twice the annual nationa
l production of Pakistan and Iran combined."
Even within the US administration there were anti-narcotics groups which had
differences with the CIA regarding the course it had followed during the Afghan war.
Their accounts and reports further collaborate CIA's role i
n the drug business. Some members of the US Strategy Council on Drug Abuse discovered
that the CIA and the other intelligence agencies were denying them access to all
classified reports on drugs, even when the Council nee
ded such data for policy formulation. They caught the CIA speaking outright lies about
the affair.
Dr. David Musto, a member of the Council, repeatedly warned Washington of the hazards
of the policy it was following in Afghanistan. America was proving to be one of the
worst victims of the drug-trade it was running in t
he name of war. Within a year or two of CIA's drug operations in south Asia, the
number of drug related deaths in New York city had risen by 77 percent. Musto
continued protesting the total lack of coordination between th
e covert warfare and drug - suppression policy.
The sharpest differences arose between the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
and the CIA. To keep the DEA in check, the Reagan administration announced that the
FBI, instead of the DEA, would control anti- drug cam
paigns inside the country. This happened in January 1982. Within a month of this, CIA
was able to gain an exemption from the legal requirement of reporting on drug
smuggling by its officers and agents. This exemption was
used by the Agency for carrying out narco-business not only in south Asia but also in
Latin America. It was only after several details of CIA's hand in large scale cocaine
traffic from these regions became public in 1995
that the US administration canceled the agency's narcotic exemption.
In 1996, after investigative articles by a reporter for a California newspaper on
CIA's role in establishing and prolifirating an international drug cartel, the
Agency's inspector- general, Frederick P Hitz, compiled a tw
o- volume report. He admitted that the CIA did indeed "know" about drug trafficking
and covered it up. The second volume is reportedly still more damning for the Agency
with the details of its south Asian operations, but
is yet to be released. All this has happened in spite of successive US governments,
including Ronald Reagan's, declaring " war on drugs". Mrs. Nancy Reagan, the First
Lady, in June 1982 announced a personal crusade asking
the American youth to "Just say no to drugs".
A Law Unto Themselves
Pakistan has become a focal point of the activities of international drug traffickers.
At the Pakistan end the story begins in February 1979 with the promulgation of the
Hadd Order banning illicit poppy cultivation. This
left Pakistan poppy growers with considerable stocks of opium; they did not know what
to do with the surplus. About that time, international drug smugglers came to their
rescue.
As Ikramul Haq reports in his book From Hash to Heroin , "first, these international
gangs managed to persuade their 'connections' in Karachi, Quetta and Lahore to send
for consignments of raw opium. But soon they discove
red that this involved great risk. They decided to convert the available opium stock
into heroin. Smugglers of opium in Khyber began, therefore to stockpile all the
illicit opium available from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakis
tan, and set up heroin labs in Landi Kotal, Bara, Darra and other places.
"A report published by '8 Days' in 1981, while commenting on the makeshift heroin
laboratories that flourish with the knowledge of what it called the 'corrupt sections
of the Pakistan Police', quoted unnamed sources for t
heir suggestions that the drug industry's profit helped arm the Afghan Mujahideen
against the Kabul regime. This allegation was further strengthened when a certain
Fazal Pacha, a resident of Burnley, Lancashire, was arres
ted by the British police. He allegedly told a police informer that he wanted weapons
for Afghan Mujahideen and offered to pay in cash and Pakistani heroin. In recent
years, a number of Afghan nationals have been arrested
by the local authorities.
MAIN DRUG TRAFFICKING ROUTES IN PAKISTAN
FOR DOMESTIC FOR INTERNATIONAL
MARKET MARKET
BY AIR
1.G.T.Road From Khyber to a) Karachi to Europe,
Karachi this includes US and the Gulf States
Landi Kotal and Bara
to Peshawar- Rawalpindi b) Lahore to Dubai
- Lahore- Karachi
2.Bannu Road From Barra Darra to Bannu- c) Lahore to Karachi
Pezu- Tank-Manzai camp, and the US, Europe,
Balochistan- Badin the Gulf States
3.Bisham Road From Swabi(Mardan) to d)Rawalpindi to Europe
Khwaza- Khela (Swat) and the US
Bisham Mansehra and on e)Peshawar to Abu Dhabi
to G T Road, up to Rawal-
pindi.
4.Peshawar to Attock- Sarghodha- f)Peshawar to Quetta and
Attock Karachi onward to Iran
BY
RAIL
5.Kohat-Bannu- Mingora to Karachi via g)Peshawar to Lahore to
Dera Ismail DIK. Direct buses thro- Amritsar
Khan ugh DIK Mianwali-sarg-
odha- Karachi.
6.Peshwar to Gandaf to Tarbela h)Peshawar to Quetta to
Tarbela lake onwards Iran
BY ROAD
7.Peshawar- via Nizampur to Attock i) Quetta to Iran via Tuftan
Kohat Road bridge. From Bridge (Ghazi area)
Kacha Road to Camp-
bellpur- Tarnol- Rawal-
pindi on to G.T.Road-
Lahore- Karachi.
8.Peshawar Bara- Peshawar- Char- j)Quetta to Iran via Mardan
Tarbela- Gha- sadda via Raja Mardan. (Turbat area)
zi on G T Swabi- Tarbela- Ghazi
Road Road on G T Road. Raw- k) Lahore to India via
Wagah
alpindi- Lahore- Sukkur- border
Hydrabad- Karachi
9.Bara - Sadda Via Miran Shah, Quetta l)Lahore to India via
Ganda-
(Kurram and Badin singhwala
Agency)
BY SEA
10.Tirah and from Tirah to Thal, Biki- m) Karachi to the
Gulf Sta-
Quetta nd Khel, Tura checkpost. tes, the US
through PN-
Waziristan, Ali Miran Shah SC
vessels, private motor
Loralai and Naukundi
launchers and private steamers of foreign origin.
11.Railway Peshawar- Karachi
route Peshawar- Lahore
Peshawar- Quetta
'heroin is big money, and it has created its own local mafia.
Investment in illicit production and trafficking is increased by the
minute. Heroin used to be produced in Pakistan primarily for export,
but today it is also produced for the local markets. However, it did
not take long before local consumption reached a frightening level.
In order to promote addiction, free samples of heroin were
distributed in different parts of the country. According to a survey
conducted by a group of Baloch doctors, heroin is distributed free of
cost along the Mekran coast. Similar reports came from Mirpurkhas and
Tando Adam. After making their victims habitual, the drug traffickers
established a countrywide network of drug -pushers and peddlers and
thus, caused what can be called a 'heroin epidemic'.
"In December 1983, the first heroin factory in Lahore was unearthed.
Out of seven arrested, four belonged to the tribal area while the
rest hailed from Rawalpindi. During interrogation, the accused
allegedly admitted that they had been supplying heroin to people at
various places in the city, and also sending it across the border.
The relationship between the sudden increase in trafficking and
growing local consumption is very clear. If a trafficker finds it
difficult to export a certain quantity he cannot afford to keep it
for long.
Hence he will dump it in the local market. Besides, the local mafia
need a network of drug - pushers and drug - traffickers. Together,
they sell drugs for local consumption and for export to the
international markets. A close association between them is necessary
because the illegal narcotics trade requires a well - knit network
consisting of local traffickers and professional smugglers.
Heroin Dens in Lahore
"At least thirty heroin dens are operating in Lahore where 'charas'
and opium are also available from 7 am till midnight. Most of the
heroin dens are in the walled city -- two each in Qila Gujar Singh,
Masti Gate, Ravi Road, Misri Shah, Mozang, Mughalpura, Yakki Gate,
Ravi Road, Bilal Ganj and Bhati Gate. Apart from these dens, there
are over three hundred peddlers covertly carrying out wholesale
business. According to a survey, more than 15,000 addicts come daily
to obtain heroin(the current rate is Rs 20 and Rs 30 per packet
weighing about one gram). Most of the consumers come on motorcycles
or autorickshaws and 60 percent of them belong to the surrounding
localities and the rest come from areas far away from the old city."
The strength and reach of the drug - lords of Pakistan and
Afghanistan has been growing immeasurably. It is not clear whether
the CIA has continued supporting the narcotics business on either
side of the Pak- Afghan border after the last Soviet troops left
Afghanistan in February 1989. But with its own society falling prey
to it, the American government has since then realised the horrors of
the drug trade. Concerted attempts by various American agencies, the
United Nations Drug Control Programme(UNDCP) as well as ,
occasionally, the Pakistan government to bring the narco- trade under
control have, however failed to make a dent.
The drug trade, coupled with the arms traffic, flourishes and is now
perhaps the most profitable business in the world. In 1999 itself,
Afghanistan's opium production doubled to 4,500 tons; there is no
limit to the proportion in which the profits may rise. With
prosperity has come power, and the tribal drug- lords of the region,
in whom the trade continues to remain vested, have now grown quite
beyond the authority of the Pakistan government, the US
administration and the United Nations. The land under the control of
Pushtun drug-lords in Afghanistan and Pakistan's frontier areas have
been 'out of bounds' for the Pakistani government for long. With the
beginning of the Afghan war in December 1979, no foreigner was able
to visit the area across Torkham, the border crossing between
Pakistan and Afghanistan -- except British Princess Anne who wanted
to see the headquarters of Khyber Rifles, having probably first read
about it in Kipling's stories, and insisted that the Pakistani
government provide her with a military escort, as reported by
American writer John K. Cooley in his Unholy Wars.
According to Cooley's account, in December 1982, American Attorney-
General William French Smith along with his DEA appointee Francis
Mullen came to South Asia for a visit to the village of Landi Kotal --
the centre of the traffic in narcotics and illegal weapons -- in
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and just five miles from
Torkham. Their purpose of the visit was to see for themselves the
heroin laboratories of Landi Kotal. Though they came with plenty of
escorts from Islamabad, the Americans did not get the trip cleared
with the local Pushtun warlords involved in drug business, a mistake
which almost proved fatal.
They reached the Landi Kotal bazaar where arms and cellophane-wrapped
heroin powder were being openly displayed for sale, but were unable
to catch even a glimpse of the actual laboratories. Indeed they came
close to losing their lives in the gunfire that ensued from some of
the very druglords with whom the CIA station in Islamabad was
working. In the confusion that ensued from a sudden Pakistani's
government raid to destroy the drug laboratories not even serving the
anti- Soviet jihad but carrying out business of their own, Smith and
his partymen were just able to rush with their lives.
After the Afghan war, the druglords of the frontier areas have only
gained in strength and have become more independent of the CIA or the
Pakistan government. In 1995, Benazir Bhutto launched a personal
crusade against the druglords in an effort to set the stage for a
forthcoming visit to America. Some 2,800 men in armoured vehicles of
Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps raided one of the remote
Khyber valleys. There the government claimed that it had dismantled
15 heroin laboratories and seized 6.3 tons of heroin. If true, this
would be a world record for heroin seizures anywhere in the world.
The UN Drug Control Programme has foe years been struggling to stop
narcotics production from the area. It has been prepared to subsidise
farmers to improve the production and marketing of fruits and
vegetables, hoping to make the cultivation of opium less attractive.
The project has met with some success, as reported in a book La
Petite Cuillere de Scheherezade (Sheherezade's Little Spoon ) by
Stephane Allix, in Pakistan's Dir Valley. Farmers have been
encouraged to replace opium with peas, and the UN agency with the
help of Pakistan drug control authorities is providing assistance in
carrying vegetables to the markets. With the cost of transporting
their produce through human couriers and mules now covered, the
farmers are earning three times as much cultivating peas than they
did through opium.
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