Drug Trafficking – A Threat to Central Asia

The Central Asia Counternarcotics Initiative (CACI)

Fact Sheet
Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
February 21, 2012

Goals Of Caci In Central Asia:
• Disrupt drug-trafficking from Afghanistan and dismantle transnational crime organizations.

• Establish government networks to enhance investigation, prosecution and conviction of traffickers.

• Promote regional cooperation for successful joint and cross-border operations.

• Build forensic, investigative and prosecutorial capacity to identify and arrest leaders of drug-trafficking organizations.

• Develop counter-narcotics task forces to enable meaningful law enforcement cooperation.
The Central Asian states that border Afghanistan are facing a significant threat from illicit narcotic drugs transiting from Afghanistan.

Violent extremist groups from Afghanistan and Pakistan threaten stability in the region, with drug trafficking providing a significant source of their funding.

The United States Government is committed to partnering with Central Asia to counter these threats.

Regional Cooperation

The Central Asia Counternarcotics Initiative (CACI) will improve the ability of Central Asian countries to disrupt drug trafficking originating from Afghanistan and dismantle related criminal organizations through effective investigation, prosecution and conviction of mid to high level traffickers.

CACI will focus on regional cooperation and help establish counter-narcotics task forces that will serve as an impetus for further reform, facilitate increased information sharing, and form a foundation for further institutional capacity building.

U.S. Assistance

The Department of State has identified $4.2 million to support counternarcotics agencies in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It is anticipated that additional U.S. government resources will be selected to support this program as it further develops.

This assistance is in addition to approximately $14 million which INL provides on a bilateral basis for law enforcement and rule of law programs in Central Asia.

The U.S. will continue to support a broad spectrum of activities against drug trafficking by;

• Supporting development of legislative revisions to allow for the implementation of drug task forces in the region;

• Providing training and equipment to drug control agencies and units to assist them to support and develop dedicated drug investigative tasks forces;

• Assisting the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to increase its counternarcotics work in the region working with national drug control agencies and task forces;

• Coordinating closely with the U.S. Department of Defense’s $101 million in counternarcotics programs in Central Asia and will seek synergies with DOD programming; and

• Partnering with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in support of police reform, border security and drug control.

ENDS

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