Viktor Cherkesov: We must fight not cover but mechanisms of drug trafficking

The main task of the State Committee on Controlling the Trafficking in Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is to fight against organised crime in the sphere of drug sale, believes the Committee Chairman Viktor Cherkesov.

It is senseless and of little effect to fight against petty sellers and drug addicts, said Cherkesov in the interview which he gave to Russian reporters after the end of his visit to Tajikistan.

"We have a good statistics with regard to checking crimes connected with drugs, but the drug business is expanding," he noted.

The general said that mercenary and corruption crime is growing in the sphere of drug trafficking.

"Earlier, we did not prevent this process, we were fighting against the cover, not against the mechanisms of drug trafficking," said Cherkesov.

In his opinion, it is necessary to pay "special attention to the economic basis of the drug business, to find out and search for the methods of influencing the foundations of the drug crime." Viktor Cherkesov reminded the reporters that according to the data of the United Nations, the annual amount of the world drug trafficking ranges between 300 and 600 billion dollars, and at some estimates it approaches one trillion dollars.

The head of the drug control committee explained that the work of the secret services is considered effective when they confiscate from seven to fifteen percent of the drugs. "Unfortunately, our work has not reached even seven percent," said Cherkesov.

The strategic task, according to him, is to find out transportation route of drugs in Russia.

"Even if we narrow these channels, we shall make the criminals change their routes, but this measure calls for new outlays and time which considerably weaken the drug business. Apart from that, according to him, it is necessary to find out the financial schemes under which the drug money is being turned into securities, hard currency and real estate." "In Russia, the cases of finding out these financial schemes for laundering drug money are yet very rare," underscored Cherkesov. In the middle of the '90s it was the Sharhan Bank through which money, received from the sale of drugs, was laundered, said the head of the State Committee on Controlling the Trafficking in Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.