DUSHANBE, July 28, 2011, Asia-Plus -- All fears that drug flow out of Afghanistan will sharply rise after withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan are absolutely baseless, Mahmadnaim Mirzoyev, deputy director of the Drug Control Agency (DCA) under the President of Tajikistan, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 27.

According to him, combating drug production is not in competence of the NATO-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.  “They do not have mandate to combat production and spread of narcotics in Afghanistan.  NATO forces have been fulfilling their own missions in Afghanistan,” Mirzoyev said, reminding that earlier, Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) had offered extension of the UN mandate for NATO troops in Afghanistan that would oblige them to eradicate poppy fields and fight production and spread of narcotics in Afghanistan.      

We will recall that speaking at the10th meeting of the SCTO Coordination Council of the Heads of Competent Bodies against Illegal Drug Trafficking in Yerevan on July 6, the FSKN director Viktor Ivanov noted, “Since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001, the amount of heroin made in Afghanistan has grown 40 times, making this country an absolute monopolist in the production of this lethal narcotic.”