British troops investigated for heroin smuggling

British troops investigated for heroin smuggling

www.bbc.co.uk

Military police are investigating claims that British soldiers may have trafficked heroin from Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Defence said they were aware of "unsubstantiated" claims that troops were using military aircraft to ship the drug out of the country.

The inquiry is focusing on British and Canadian service personnel at airports in Camp Bastion and Kandahar.

Security has been tightened, with additional sniffer dogs being used as part of the crackdown at the bases.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I just read this in the Sunday times newspaper.
The newspaper says Canadian troops as well as Brits ,may be involved.
Many ATS threads have disscused the explosion in opium production in Afghanistan since the Taliban were "defeated."

Although many people here have said they feel the allies have been profiting from drug dealing,we have not seen much in the way of MSM coverage-until now.

As it stands,this is only an allegation so far,but it is recieving some MSM attention.

However IMO,this is probably just a few troops wanting to top up their earnings when they get home by selling heroin back home.

Now that is bad enough-but I really doubt they troops are the ones making the big bucks.

I wonder if these troops will be made an example of,in order to hide the bigger fish involved,like maybe the Afghan government and their international "friends?"

www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

If you think about it it had to happen, loads of tough men in positions of trust, many from poor criminalised areas, poorly paid for the incredibly hard job they do, surrounded by a commodity worth a thousand times more, 2 years pay profit on every kg if secretly taken home and sold to an old school mate hmmm no brainer.

Wow, just wow.

Use the soldiers to make your money, and if they get caught, they get the blame.

Total B.S.

Half of the soldiers coming back from Afghan are addicted to heroin.

As you say OP it will be interesting to see where they pin the blame.

A channel 4 documentary about the drugs trade was on recently and although they skirted around implicating the allies it was made very clear that elements within the Afghan government are involved to some extent.

Lets hope they follow the bread crumbs all the way!

reply to post by gandhi


I did wonder if the soldiers concerned were addicts who thought that they would not be able to get/afford heroin back home.

I don't support the idea of using Heroin-but if I was to be sympathetic to a group who used it it at all it would be the soldiers who are being shot at all day every day....They must need a form of relaxation,and maybe in a war situation they may feel its ok to use Heroin-especially if they have seen friends killed and think they may never see home again.

Like in civilian life-it seems its those in despair who are attacted to that filthy drug.

As I said before though-I really doubt these soldiers are the big dealers,but maybe turned into scapegoats(whereas IMO they should really be given help to get over what they have gone through over there.).

Also,the mark up on a kilo of heroin is phenomenal-especially when viewed from a soldiers wage level.
So there must be temptation.

well it doesnt take a genius to realize the militaries have to be transporting drugs, since after the invasion of Afghanistan, there was the largest influx of heroin. Oh wow, Afghanistan produces some of the largest poppy fields? Hmmmm...


eta; im smart... yay!!

I was just wondering how prevalent this is in the British army,and found this from 2006:

A newly-issued report highlights the scale of the drug-related dismissals that take place within the British Army each year. According to the Royal United Services Institute, 769 positive tests for drugs including heroin and ecstasy were recorded in 2006 - over 250 more than had taken place in 2003. Over the same three-year period, the number of tests where coc aine played a part increased four-fold.
A common outcome from a positive drug test is dishonourable discharge from the armed forces.

www.armedforces-int.com...

From the above,the numbers seem to be increasing fast.
I wonder if there is the same mentality in the Army as we have in our prisons over in the UK;That heroin is the drug to take as its the easist to get away with-due to it leaving the body only a day or so after use,as opposed to cannabis which hangs around in the system for weeks(making a positive drug test most likely.).

this reminds me of a movie in which they brought heroin in coffins from war zones. I can't remember the name...

Let's talk first on how this works, Opium turns into Heroin.... but how?

Afghan heroin 'sponsored' by West?


I think that they are trying to create another Saddam in Afghanistan, but with a whole lotta drug trade globalism that goes along with it.

I've read reports that since the U.S. invasion the drug trafficking has increased substancially.

Iranian police officials say drug production in Afghanistan has had a 40-fold increase since the US led invasion of the country in 2001.

www.presstv.com...

If you look for this information it doesn't only come from the middle east.

reply to post by charlie_the_loafer


Was that "Air America" with Mel Gibbon?

www.imdb.com...

Now that film is more how I would have thought it was done-the utilising of corrupt intelligence people to smuggle drungs en masse,rathere than just a few soldiers...

Unless of course this event turns out to be more than "just a few soldiers."

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


It wasn't that one, i really hate it when i forget names of movies

double post , sorry

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Good post ModernAcedemia,and in fact the UN have also made reports showing the increase in Afghan opium since the invasion:

en.wikinews.org...

Someones managing to get a whole lot of the crap out of the country,and I doubt its all walked over the border on donkeys...

Some drug bosses in the war-ravaged country have implicated soldiers in the trade.
Last year the Sunday Times spoke to one dealer who said members of the military were the second largest buyers of heroin after foreign drug lords.
The newspaper was told: 'The soldiers whose term of duty is about to finish, they give an order to our boss.' The dealer, named only as Aziz, added: 'They are carrying these drugs in the military airlines and they can't be reached because they are military.
They can take it to the USA or England.'

www.dailymail.co.uk... ml?ito=feeds-newsxml

Well that sounds bad-but this is the daily mail,so I won't take it as truth yet.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Thanks for posting the video. I wasn't surprised considering it's from Russia that they have painted it in that light. What did everybody say when the US complained about Central and South America supplying drugs?

"Deal with The demand and stop blaming the suppliers."

Russia now 'top heroin consumer'

"In recent years Russia has not just become massively hooked on Afghan opiates, it has also become the world's absolute leader in the opiate trade and the number one heroin consumer," he said in a report made available to reporters.

Russia finally admits to its hidden heroin epidemic

Most of these people are addicted to heroin which transits from Afghanistan, through central Asia, and across the long and porous border from Kazakhstan into Russia. There are people addicted to heroin across Russia's 11 time-zones, and the country's anti-drugs body says that Russia now uses more heroin than any other country in the world.

I noticed how it left out the "Russian Mob" who are the most influential contributors to Russia's problem. They are the ones paying for the import, transit and pushing the heroin in their own country.



I know it's not as sexy as the Movie Air America

reply to post by SLAYER69


So how are the Russian Mobs getting these vast quantities out of Afghanistan if not with US military assistance..

I just dont see a Russian plane landing at a US airbase..

reply to post by charlie_the_loafer


American Gangster - Ridley Scott director?

Originally posted by CynicalM
reply to post by SLAYER69

 

So how are the Russian Mobs getting these vast quantities out of Afghanistan if not with US military assistance..

I just dont see a Russian plane landing at a US airbase..

You can't be that Naive???

What?
Do you think that the Russians just became the largest Heroin users overnight? Remember they were in Afghanistan decades before the US and have a huge porous border with Central Asia.

Pre-US-2003

Between 1993 and 1995, the annual amount of seized narcotic substances increased from thirty-five tons to ninety tons. At present approximately 5 million people use illicit drugs in Russia. Russia has the biggest heroin problem along with Iran and Estonia. Russia is a major consumer of opiates.

The trafficking routes have been laid out years/decades before NATO got into the picture.

Russia is one of the two major drug producers along with Morocco, and one of the five major drug trafficking entry points along with Iran, Turkey, Italy and Spain in the Mediterranean region. The drug trafficking also involves the supply of opium, heroin and marijuana from Central Asia and the Golden Crescent, comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Russian drug rings work with the Sicilian mafia and the Colombian drug traffickers to import and distribute.

Take a good hard look at the maps posted below. I'll let them speak for themselves.

Many local Russian distributors have connections with criminal organizations in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Ukraine. According to the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, a regular trafficking route exists from Tajikistan to Rostov-on-Don via Turkmenistan, and from there to Western Europe

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/981ad67e11b3.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1228b61870cb.jpg[/atsimg]

Originally posted by gandhi
Half of the soldiers coming back from Afghan are addicted to heroin.

Really? Half? got a source for that wild-ass claim?

Because I know for certain that 50% of my squadron isn't strung out on heroin.