British, Canadian troops smuggling Afghan heroin: report

[Veiledal]

CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Sun. Sep. 12 2010 10:10 PM ET

Military police in Afghanistan are investigating unsubstantiated allegations that British and Canadian soldiers may have smuggled heroin out of the war-torn country.

According to a report published in British newspaper The Sunday Times, troops at the British base in Helmand province and the Canadian base at Kandahar Airfield may have been involved in trafficking the drug.

"We are aware of these allegations. Although they are unsubstantiated, we take any such reports very seriously," a British Ministry of Defence spokesperson told the newspaper.

In Ottawa, a National Defence spokesperson told CTV News the department is looking into the allegations.

Helmand province is one of the world's leading sources of opium which can be refined into heroin. Sales of the poppy derivatives generates millions of dollars each year, much of which goes to finance the Taliban.

original site with video http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20100912/afghanistan-heroin-smuggling-allegations-100912/

only allegations but what do you guys have to say about this

 

[PuckChaser]

Where did this report come from? Is the source credible? If it is true, I think its been stated before on other topics, but the CF is a microcosm of Canadian society. Some just can't stand up to the temptation of quick money.

 

[The Bread Guy]

The original British media account (highlights mine), shared in accordance with the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright  Act:

British soldiers suspected of heroin trafficking ring
MoD tightens checks on troops returning from Afghanistan to RAF Brize Norton after a whistleblower tip-off of drug-smuggling network
David Leppard and Miles Amoore, The Times (UK), 12 Sept 10

Detectives are investigating a suspected heroin trafficking ring among British soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

The inquiry centres on British and Canadian troops based at Camp Bastion and Kandahar, the two main airports ferrying military personnel in and out of the country. Army chiefs are so concerned that they have ordered an increase in checks on troops returning from frontline duties.

This includes greater use of sniffer dogs, body and luggage searches and other covert monitoring at RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire, the military airport from which up to 700 troops return each week.

The checks are so extensive that the Ministry of Defence this weekend issued an apology to its personnel for the inconvenience being caused. However, it also threatened that any troops found to be caught up in the trade would be subjected to the full rigours of criminal law.

Afghanistan grows 90% of the world’s opium, the raw material which is refined into heroin. About 60% is cultivated in Helmand province, the centre of combat operations for British and other Nato troops.

The trade brings in about £2 billion a year with Taliban-backed drug lords offering farmers three times their daily wage to harvest opium poppies.

Anecdotal evidence from local drugs smugglers has for some time suggested that British troops may be involved in the trade.

The criminal inquiry began after detectives from the MoD’s special investigation branch in Hampshire were tipped off by a whistleblower that a network of British soldiers has been buying the drugs from dealers and shipping them back on military aircraft to Brize Norton.

The MoD said this weekend that it was investigating the allegations and had acted immediately to target soldiers who tried to smuggle drugs back from Afghanistan.

A spokesman said: “We take any such reports very seriously and we have already tightened our existing procedures, both in Afghanistan and in the UK, including through increasing the use of sniffer dogs.”

Last year The Sunday Times interviewed one 32-year-old dealer who said he had worked for an official in the Northern Alliance, an anti-Taliban organisation which funds itself through the drugs trade. The dealer, who identified himself only as Aziz, described deals he had done in Kabul.

He said: “Most of our other customers, apart from drug lords in foreign countries, are the military. The soldiers whose term of duty is about to finish, they give an order to our boss. So most of the foreigners who do these deals are the military. They buy a lot from us.

“As I have heard, 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.

“I have heard this when I first started out from the guys who referred me to my boss.”

No link because it's subscriber only, but story attached as PDF.

 

[PMedMoe]

Canada's military won't probe heroin allegations

Canada's military won't investigate British media reports that Canadian soldiers are alleged to have smuggled heroin out of Afghanistan, sources told CBC News.

The military was reacting to reports Sunday in the Sunday Times and the BBC that Canadian and British troops have been sending large quantities of heroin out of Afghanistan on military aircraft taking troops back to Britain.

The heroin was then allegedly sold to drug traffickers for sale on the streets.

However, the military sources said Monday that following a thorough check with officials on the ground at Kandahar Air Field and through the chain of command, there are no allegations of Canadian heroin smuggling and will be no investigation of any smuggling.

The military sources called the reports a case of media speculation.

The Canadian military is due to issue an official statement shortly.

More at link

 

[The Bread Guy]

The CF's statement:

The Canadian Forces are issuing the following statement in response to media reports alleging that Canadian Forces personnel are implicated in a British-led investigation into heroin smuggling in Afghanistan:

“Media reports this past weekend suggesting that Canadian Forces personnel have been implicated in a British-led investigation into heroin smuggling by military personnel in Afghanistan are unfounded.

“The Canadian Forces Military Police have confirmed with Britain's Royal Military Police that no such investigation is underway and that no such allegations have been made against either British or Canadian personnel.

“The Canadian Forces take all allegations against their personnel seriously and investigate where warranted,” says Colonel Tim Grubb, Canadian Forces Provost Marshal.

More from the Canadian Press....

The Canadian military is casting doubt on reports in the British media that a heroin smuggling ring is being run out of Kandahar with the help of Canadian troops.  Capt. Annie Djiotsa, a spokeswoman for Task Force Kandahar, says officials are aware of allegations, but have yet to decide whether a full military police investigation will be launched ....

.... the Toronto Star ....

No Canadian soldiers “are implicated in the ongoing investigation” of heroin smuggling among troops in Afghanistan, the Department of National Defence said Monday.  The Sunday Times has reported that Canadian soldiers based at Kandahar airport and British soldiers at Camp Bastion in Helmand province are alleged to be organizing the smuggling.  “We’ve conferred with the Royal Military Police as well as our Canadian Forces military police contingent in Kandahar,” DND spokeswoman Jenn Gearey told the Star Monday morning.  The report back from Canadian Forces was that “none of their personnel are implicated,” Gearey said. “They didn’t know of any Canadians involved.  “If we feel an investigation is warranted, we’ll launch one.”  Gearey couldn’t say if any military is investigating the reports in the Times ....

...and this comment from Postmedia News' Brian Hutchinson in Afghanistan:

From London, a story has moved raising an allegation of heroin trafficking by British and Canadian troops on military bases, in Helmand province and here at Kandahar Airfield.

The lone allegation is sourced to an Afghan drug dealer named “Aziz.”

Wow. Stunning.

Somewhere, an Afghan drug dealer named Aziz purportedly tells a reporter that large-scale heroin smuggling is going on at Camp Bastion and at KAF, and the reporter’s editors decide this is good, this is gold, damn credibility, it’s published. In the Daily Mail, which, I am told, simply grabbed a year-old, unsubstantiated story from the Sunday Times.

The Daily Mail ran its own version, quoting Aziz, and insulted every one of its readers with its deceit.

Whatever. The rest of the media world bought in today and rewrote the rewritten, year-old Sunday Times story.

I’ll wager some Talibs are sitting around their stockpile of opium and having a hearty laugh. Thanks Aziz, you’ll go to heaven!

- edited to add CF statement and Hutchinson comment -

 

[xena]

In my personal opinion, the best comment regarding this has come from our British equivalent (Arrse.co.uk):

Please note that these are 'allegations' of an 'investigation'. Even the Daily Mail doesn't say that this is an actual story.

What it is, actually, is utter bollocks.

If anything, it's probably been dropped into the media sh*tpool by someone in authority, in order to let the Boys know that it's not worth even thinking about this.

Just my (and Old Snowy's)  2 kopecks.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

“As I have heard, 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.

“I have heard this when I first started out from the guys who referred me to my boss.”

Bollocks!! *Unconfirmed information coming from a source of unknown reliability." In other words a suspect source.

 

[57Chevy]

Simple bottom-of-the-barrel propaganda.

"The checks are so extensive that the Ministry of Defence this weekend issued an apology to its personnel for the inconvenience being caused."

What next ?

 

[SeanNewman]

The CBC TV news coverage on it seemed a lot more balanced, not slanted/toned as anti-military as the internet stories read.

 

[ModlrMike]

The CBC TV news coverage on it seemed a lot more balanced, not slanted/toned as anti-military as the internet stories read.

Until you get to the comments portion.