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British troops investigated for drug smuggling in Afghanistan

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Sept 13, IRNA -- Military police were reported Monday to be investigating claims that British soldiers may have been involved in heroin trafficking in Afghanistan.

The inquiry, headed by a team of detectives from the Ministry of Defence's special investigations branch, was said to be focusing on British and Canadian service personnel at airports in Camp Bastion and Kandahar.

'We are aware of these allegations. Although they are unsubstantiated, we take any such reports very seriously,” a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman told Britain’s PA news agency.

“We have already tightened our existing procedures both in Afghanistan and in the UK, including through increasing the use of trained sniffer dogs,” the spokeswoman said.

“Any of our people found to be engaged in trafficking of illegal narcotics will feel the full weight of the law,' she warned, while expressing regret for “any inconvenience” the investigation causes to British service personnel.

According to Britain’s PA news agency, officials said they were aware of 'unsubstantiated' claims that troops were buying the illegal drug from dealers and using military aircraft to ship it out the country.

Afghanistan is the source of 90% of the world's opium and 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.

'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,' said the dealer, named only as Aziz.