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Afghan President Hamid Karzai hints that the US-led invasion has set the ground for surge in drug production and organized crimes in his war-ravaged country.
The president emphasized at a ceremony on International Counter Narcotics Day that the unprecedented growth of Afghanistan's narcotics industry lay mostly at the feet of foreign countries with military presence in the country.
"We also know the drugs trade here is encouraged by foreigners and international mafia gangs," Karzai said.
The Afghan government sources say that NATO forces are taxing the production of opium in the regions under their control. The majority of drugs are stockpiled in provinces controlled by troops from the US, the UK, and Canada.
According to statistics, Russia was the single largest consumer of heroin in 2008. Moscow blames NATO for the surge in heroin trafficking from Afghanistan to Russia.
Russia has repeatedly questioned the US-led alliance's reluctance to eliminate poppy plantations in war-weary Afghanistan.
NATO has rejected Russian calls for it to eradicate poppy fields in Afghanistan. Moscow says Afghan heroin kills 30,000 Russians a year.
A NATO spokesman has said that the US-led alliance cannot allow a situation where people in one of the world's poorest nations are left without means of livelihood and receive no compensation.