U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Progress in Afghanistan: U.S. Releases New Poppy Cultivation Data

John Walters, Director, White House Office of Drug Control Policy; Ashraf Haidari, Political Counselor for the Embassy of Afghanistan; Michele Leonhart, Acting DEA Administrator; Bill McGlynn, State Department International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau; and Brigadier General Joseph Callahan, Joint Staff
Foreign Press Center Briefing
Washington, DC
October 27, 2008

9:30 a.m. EDT

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QUESTION: Director Walters, my name is Gregorio Meraz. I'm a reporter from Televisa Mexico. First of all, I would like to know if you have seen any connections with the – between the Afghan producers of heroin and Mexican or Colombian organizations and where the Afghan trafficking is going to what markets. It reaches always the U.S. or Europe or where it goes? Another thing I would like to ask you what do you think about the capture of the brother of Mayo Zambada and the nephew and the fact that they were protected by members of CAFI and the Federal Preventive Police?

MR. WALTERS: Well, first of all, the bringing to justice of major traffickers, mafia terrorists is always good news. So I congratulate Mexican forces and the efforts to continue the fight, the brutal fight, as you know, in Mexico, and we congratulate them on the success.

In terms of the Afghan opium and heroin and its distribution, I'll ask Michelle to come talk a little bit more about what we know about it. I will say in terms of our domestic demand, Afghan heroin is not currently seen as a major source of heroin in the United States. We -- heroin is a smaller problem, thank God, in the United States. And we have not – we have some, and I think we are vigilant, however, because in the past Southwest Asian heroin has been a bigger part of the U.S. market 10 or 15, 20 years ago. So this is a global market. We can be victimized by it as are other countries. But right now, it's not a major part of our market. But why don't I ask her to respond to the part of your question about where it goes and whether it's – we show connections with other traffickers.

MS. LEONHART: Thank you. Director Walters is correct. There's very little Afghan heroin that actually makes it to the United States. But we know from our history at one time, Afghanistan was the primary source of all the heroin that flooded our country. So learning from that history, we put -- right after September 11th, we put measures in place, one being a 19-country operation, called Operation Containment. And it was to put the security belt around that region, making sure that it was harder for heroin to go out, harder for chemicals to go into Afghanistan. That standing up of that multi-country operation is one of the reasons why I can stand here today to say there's been very little change with Southwest Asian heroin distribution in the United States. However, we have identified organizations primarily run by major traffickers in Afghanistan that did target markets here in the United States. And we very successfully with our Afghan partners have been able to arrest and disrupt and dismantle those organizations.

As far as where is that heroin going, it's countries such as Russia, it's China, and it's the Central Asian countries who are most affected by Afghan heroin, and to include Iran.

As far as connections with Mexican drug cartels, obviously that would be a major worry for us. I can't tell you that that has happened because the number two source of supply for heroin in the United States is Mexico, so they would actually be competitors. But as we look at South America, we become very concerned about the drug lords and the insurgents and the money that fuels the insurgents, letting there be this connection that forms with our South American cartels.

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QUESTION: Sorry, just one question for both the U.S. and Afghanistan officials. The – Mr. Ashraf said that the – one of the reasons for fueling production and supplies international demand – how have countries that are the source of these drugs cooperated with Afghanistan or not cooperated with Afghanistan in overcoming the problem? And to the U.S. officials, if Operation Containment had been going on, say, for the last seven years, what are the loopholes there that have resulted in increases in production only until last two years, and whether Russia, China, and the Central Asian Republics and Iran are part of this 18-member containment strategy?

MS. LEONHART: I'll answer as to Operation Containment. Each year, with our strategy and with the countries working together, Iran is not one of those countries as a part of Operation Containment. We have seen successes and that those successes are not just in increases in chemical seizures, opium seizures, heroin seizures, but also in money, the money that is the result of this drug trafficking.

And the big – the big, I think, bang for the buck on our end has been the high-value targets that our countries collectively have been able to take out. And we have a number of those high-value targets that have been prosecuted very recently in the United States. And that will continue and that is just one of the benefits of Operation Containment being stood up very early and working with our Afghanistan partners, working together to go after the high-value targets, those most responsible for the drug trade. And those same organizations are what's fueling the insurgency.

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