Under the West's watch, Ukraine has morphed into a gangsters' paradise with all sorts of illicit drugs passing through its territory and the domestic production and consumption of synthetic narcotics booming.
Back in June 2002, the US Justice Department emphasized Ukraine's growing importance as a transit point for heroin trafficking largely originating from Afghanistan which went through the Balkan and Northern routes. The US-backed 2014 coup in Ukraine exacerbated the problem and was followed by a spike in corruption, gang crime, and weapons smuggling. The role of Ukraine as a transit point for extremists and illicit drugs to Europe has also increased.
ISIS* Hub and Afghan Drug Route
In July 2015, Italian MEP Matteo Salvini drew attention to ISIS* sympathizers fighting on the side of the Kiev regime in Donbass in an official letter to the EU leadership.
In 2019 and 2020, British, Polish and Ukrainian investigative journalists revealed that ISIS jihadists originating, in particular, from post-Soviet space used Ukraine as a transit point to and out of the Middle East in the course of the civil war in Syria which started in 2011. Having sustained defeat from the Russian Air Forces in Syria, ISIS started to use Ukraine as a safe haven.
Ukraine's role as a hub for ISIS terrorists could be closely connected with drug trafficking. Establishing a foothold in Afghanistan in 2015, ISIS militants used the Afghan opiate trade as a source of income since at least 2014, according to the Russian Federal Service for Drug Control.
"The large-scale transit of Afghan heroin acts as a renewable financial base for the functioning of the Islamic State, which extracts fabulous profits by providing half of the total volume of heroin supplied to Europe through destabilized Iraq and some African countries," the Russian agency stated on November 26, 2014.
"In 2015, the Afghan branch of ISIS officially declared its establishment," Andrey Serenko, director of the Analytical Center of Afghanistan policy, told Sputnik. "[ISIS-Khorasan*] emerged from the ruins of some groups of dissatisfied Taliban** fighters whose leaders for some reason did not agree on interests with the Taliban leadership. From the first months of its existence, the Afghan branch of ISIS began to fight for jihad resources. The large Afghan 'jihad industry', then, and even now, relies heavily on the drug business. If in Syria and Iraq such sources of economic power of jihad were the illegal trade in petroleum products, then in Afghanistan it was drugs."
"In [Afghanistan's] provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar [infamous for heroin production – Sputnik], ISIS reached an agreement with the local tribes who joined ISIS and still sympathize with the terror group. Accordingly, in several counties, for example, Achin County, ISIS was able to seize control of laboratories producing heroin," the expert continued.
US global policy think tank RAND pointed out in July 2017 that ISIS viewed conflict zones in Ukraine and Syria as an ample opportunity to connect to underground criminal networks to facilitate the drug trade. ISIS recruits traveled back and forth, relying on drug trafficking as a means of generating revenue.
"The drug business is not only about cargo, it is primarily about people, people who are imported, people who settle locally, people who settle somewhere. Because heroin itself does not travel by itself, someone transports it. That is, someone must control the routes," explained Serenko, adding that Afghan jihadists have regarded Ukraine as a convenient transit corridor to Europe since at least 2010.
In 2021, the Russian Interior Ministry drew attention to the increasing use of Ukrainian ports for the transit of opiates from Afghanistan. The ministry's head, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, underscored the influence of "the Afghan factor" on drug crime in the Eastern European state alongside the heightened risks of terrorist and extremist activity.
Market and Transit Point for Synthetic Drugs?
Speaking at a ministerial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in August 2022, Kolokoltsev again emphasized the growing flow of drugs from Afghanistan.
"Despite the declarative statements of the authorities, the flow of drugs from Afghanistan does not weaken. Moreover, the 'range' is expanding to include methamphetamine and marijuana," the minister highlighted.
Ukraine has become a lucrative market for methamphetamine, a synthetic drug, which today is taking a leading position in the drug market not only in Afghanistan but in the entire world, according to Serenko. Citing Afghan experts specializing in drug trafficking issues, he noted that Ukrainians have become one of the main consumers of the psychotropic substance.
"[Afghan experts] believe that today, during the conflict, the Ukrainian army can use methamphetamine in order to maintain the combat readiness of its military personnel. [The drug ensures] the absence of fear, the removal of fatigue, the unique ability to not eat or drink for two or three days, not to be distracted by any inconvenience," the expert said.
Serenko continued that Afghan experts consider Ukraine as an emerging transit point for this type of drug on its route to Europe, where the demand for Afghan-produced methamphetamine is rising.
"Therefore, these two directions, which today are identified on the basis of the supply of synthetic drugs from Afghanistan to Ukraine, and through Ukraine to the West and Arab countries, they are – according to the assessments of my Afghan friends, who are now experts in this area, and whose opinion I much trust – the main ones," Serenko underscored.
Ukraine and West Turn Blind Eye to Drug Problem
It appears, however, that neither Western nor Ukrainian authorities are interested in addressing the problem which continues to worsen, according to Alexander Mikhailov, a retired Russian lieutenant general of drug police.
"Taking into account the present situation in Ukraine, there is no war on drugs there at all," Mikhailov told Sputnik. "And by definition, it doesn’t work. Moreover, today it should be noted that a large number of those Ukrainian citizens who have concentrated in Europe were previously involved in drug trafficking. On the one hand, we are dealing with supplies, and in Europe we are dealing with sales, which are carried out by the same Ukrainians who were doing this before fleeing to Europe. This radically changes the situation."
According to the retired lieutenant general, drugs are one of the elements of obtaining funds for the purchase of weapons, equipment, and the recruitment of mercenaries. He is not surprised by the Kiev regime's lax attitude to the matter.
To add to the controversy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed into law a bill legalizing "the medical use" of cannabis in mid-February. However, Mikhailov believes that the use of the substance could go far beyond medical needs. Even prior to the legalization, Ukraine's cannabis market was extensive, with numerous marijuana plantations maintained across the country, according to the 2023 Global Organized Crime Index report. According to him, Ukraine continues to fall into the abyss of criminality.
"Look at Zelensky's eyes and everything will become clear to you," Mikhailov said. "It is impossible, on the one hand, to shut something down, and on the other hand, to show with all your appearance that drugs are not evil, but are a good tool for awakening thoughts in the head of the Ukrainian dictator."
Is Ukraine Exporting 'Drug War' to Russia?
Since 2014, Russia has seen an increased influx of drug dealers of all sorts from Ukraine.
In 2016-2018, these criminal activities reached their peak. During this period, every second drug smuggler arrested by the Russian authorities and almost every clandestine drug laboratory liquidated in Russia involved Ukrainians. Most of these used forged Russian passports, as per retired Colonel of Justice Sergey Pelikh, former head of the 3rd Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the investigation of organized crime in the field of drug trafficking.
According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies directly participated in the organization of covert drug labs on the territory of Russia and the recruitment of drug dealers that were tested on lie detectors before being sent on their "mission."
"These individuals, who were [arrested in Russia and] interrogated including by me, said that before being sent to Russia they took a polygraph test in Kiev," Pelikh told Sputnik, alleging that the recruits were tested by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).
Meanwhile, the domestic production of synthetic drugs in Ukraine skyrocketed by 2020. As per the UN Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), the number of dismantled amphetamine laboratories in Ukraine leaped from 17 in 2019 to 79 in 2020 – the highest number of seized laboratories in the world at the time. The World Drug Report 2022 by the UNODC singled out Ukraine as both an independent producer of synthetic drugs and a routine transit hub for psychotropic substances.
Why Drug Mafia is Centered in Odessa
The beginning of the special military operation in February 2022 shattered the drug criminal network, but it soon adapted to the changes.
"Ukraine has been used as a hub for absolutely all drugs, because of its access to the [Black] sea through Turkiye, [the port city of Odessa] and beyond, as the Balkan route was very actively used," Pelikh emphasized.
Ukrainian drug mafias had no scruples about instrumentalizing Russia's Black Sea Grain corridor for smuggling illicit substances through Odessa, as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh revealed in July 2023, citing intelligence sources familiar with the matter.
"The Odessa port is one of the hubs not only for industrial goods, agricultural or trans-shipment, but also, accordingly, it was a hub for the transportation and further distribution of any goods to anyone in any direction, which is, so to speak, the basis for the trans-shipment of drugs. The greater the volume of traffic, the easier it is for any drug to be smuggled, hidden and transported accordingly," Pelikh said.
Russia is continuing to raise global awareness about Ukraine's place in the international drug criminal network. Ukraine remains a crucial part of the Balkan route for the delivery of Afghan drugs to Europe, Minister of Internal Affairs Kolokoltsev likewise warned during a meeting with his Saudi counterpart in May 2023.
The Crocus City Hall terror attack carried out by the hands of terrorists affiliated with the Afghan branch of ISIS and reportedly sponsored by Ukrainian nationalists has once again turned the spotlight on Ukraine's role as a terrorist safe haven and a hub for illicit drugs that inflict damage on both Europe and Russia.
* A terrorist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
**The Taliban is an organization under UN sanctions for terrorism