Hashish profits fund terrorism, RCMP says
Drug comes from Afghanistan and Pakistan, secret report finds
Monday, July 15, 2002
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
VANCOUVER, B.C. -- A portion of the $20 million worth of hashish imported into Canada each year financed terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police report says.
More than 100 metric tons of hashish is brought into Canada every year, according to a confidential RCMP report obtained by Canadian Press under access to information legislation.
Most of it comes from southwest Asia, particularly Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"This means that approximately $20 million U.S. finds its way back to the producers in the source countries," says the November 2001 report titled "Narco-terrorism and Canada."
"It is likely that terrorist elements in Afghanistan tax producers, thereby receiving a portion of the potential proceeds."
U.S. intelligence officials say drug profits have been used to finance terrorist activities. Ships in the Arabian Sea have been under intense scrutiny since the war began in Afghanistan in the fall, curbing the flow of drugs from the Middle East.
Canadian armed forces have apprehended vessels smuggling drugs, embargoed oil and other illicit materials.
In February, the HMCS Toronto, one of five Canadian warships patrolling the Arabian Sea at the time, found 90 wrapped packages of drugs. Each was stamped with the words "Freedom for Afghanistan," according to newspaper reports.
One to two metric tons of heroin is brought into Canada annually, an amount worth $10 million to $20 million, says the RCMP criminal intelligence brief.
Most comes from southeast Asia, particularly Burma.
"No large-scale importation of southwest Asian heroin originating in Afghanistan has been documented recently in Canada," the report says.
According to the United Nations Drug Control Program, Afghanistan produced 4,600 metric tons of opium in 1999 -- 80 percent of the world supply. Opium is used to make heroin.
Despite a poppy ban by the former Taliban government, the country produced 3,300 metric tons in 2000 -- 70 percent of world production.
Production fell to an estimated 185 metric tons in 2001 but the international body believes that as much as 60 percent of the Afghan production has been stockpiled since 1996.
And there are reports that since the fall of the hard-line Taliban government, Afghan farmers have ripped up wheat crops to plant poppies -- the precursor to heroin and opium.
Coalition forces in Afghanistan will likely target drug production sites, according to another RCMP report prepared in October 2001.
According to an RCMP report, the heroin is brought in mainly through Montreal and Toronto.
Police and customs agents in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia seized 19 kilograms of hashish earlier this month as part of the biggest drug bust in Canada's history.