Turkey's Erdogan: Drug Kingpin

by Stephen Lendman

In a just world, Erdogan would top Interpol's most wanted list, along with US-led NATO leaders, Israel's Netanyahu, and Middle East Arab despots - partners in high crimes too major to ignore.

Along with arming and providing safe havens for ISIS terrorists, supplying them with toxic chemical agents, and selling their oil on the black market, Erdogan is a major drug trafficker. Nothing significant happens in Turkey without his knowledge, approval and involvement.

RT International reported (US-protected) Afghan opium is processed into high-grade heroin in "clandestine Turkish drug labs for distribution in Europe and Russia," - citing Moscow's anti-drug chief as the source.

"The trafficking route was exposed after a mid-December joint Russian-Afghan anti-drug operation," said RT. A reported 600 kilograms of opium were seized in Afghanistan's Balgan province - in a truck heading for Turkey via Iran.

According to Russian state anti-drug agency chief Victor Ivanov, "(t)he cargo traveled through Badakhshan-Doshi-Bamiyan-Herat, then further through Iran and into Turkey, where the opium was processed in well-equipped laboratories…into high quality heroin, and then was to be sent to Europe and Russia."

"The spike in IS fighters corresponds with the annual increase of drug smuggling in the Middle East, which is confirmed by the growing number of heroin seizures in the region."

ISIS is involved in significant illicit drug trafficking, another major source of its revenues. Ivanov estimates it at up to 500 million annually or more. Over half of Europe's heroin comes from ISIS.

Afghanistan's lucrative drug trade (including up to 100% of world opium production for heroin) is protected by US occupation forces, representing powerful Western monied interests, including Wall Street banks - profiting hugely from human misery.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

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