09/15/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10130

THE DRUGS AND TERROR CONNECTION

In the words of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, "Terrorism and drugs go together like rats and the plague. . .They thrive in the same conditions, and they feed off of each other."

The United States has amassed evidence of a new connection between drug trafficking and terrorism. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, or D-E-A, has determined that millions of dollars in proceeds of illicit drug sales in the U.S. have been going to terrorist groups in the Middle East. They include the Iranian-sponsored, Lebanon-based Hezbollah, one of the world's most dangerous terrorist groups.

The drugs and terrorism connection was discovered during the course of an investigation that targeted methamphetamine production in the U.S. In January, more than one hundred people in ten U.S. cities were arrested in the probe.

The D-E-A says that the men were smuggling large quantities of the chemical pseudoephedrine (soo-doe EF-a-dreen) from Canada into the Midwest. Pseudoephedrine is used to make methamphetamine. Evidence gathered in the raids indicates that the drug smugglers were shipping money they made to terrorist groups, including Hezbollah.

The involvement of Hezbollah in the illegal drug trade is well-documented. In the Middle East, Hezbollah makes money by having its operatives smuggle cocaine from Latin America to Europe and elsewhere. But Hezbollah is not alone in this deadly trafficking. When the al-Qaida terrorist network had its base in Afghanistan, the terrorists raised funds partly through taxes on opium production and trafficking. According to the U-S State Department, "Afghanistan’s opiate trafficking, which account[ed] for seventy percent of the world’s supply, was reportedly advocated by Osama bin Laden as a way to weaken the West."

Striking hard at illegal drug networks is an important part of what Attorney General Ashcroft described as U.S. law enforcement's mission "to prevent terrorist attacks by identifying, tracking, disrupting and dismantling terrorist networks." As President George W. Bush has said, "The traffic in drugs finances the works of terror, sustaining terrorists. . .terrorists use drug profits to fund their cells to commit acts of murder." The United States is committed to seeing it brought to an end.