International forces in Afghanistan have...
"Whereas drug production in Afghanistan has increased 40 times during the last 10 years in the presence of international troops, the previous year saw only a dramatic decline in the volume of confiscated drugs," said Viktor Ivanov, the director of the Federal Drug Control Service.
"The number of arrests of drug dealers has likewise dwindled 13 times, and the number of drug laboratories 10 times in the last three years," he went on, adding that the policy may have serious ramifications for the West"s peace efforts in Afghanistan.
Earlier, Ivanov expressed deep concern over the alarming rise in the flow of drugs from Afghanistan into Dagestan in Russia"s volatile North Caucasus region, leading to increases in crime and terrorist activity.
He noted that over the past years the United Nations had shirked its responsibilities in implementing an anti-drug program in Afghanistan, leaving it to NATO, which in turn had passed the issue on to local authorities.