http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/herointrafficking092308.htm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 23, 2008
WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/NYS/
CONTACT: U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
YUSILL SCRIBNER
REBEKAH CARMICHAEL
(212) 637-2600
TOP TALIBAN ASSOCIATE AND FORMER MUJAHIDEEN WARLORD FOUND GUILTY OF HEROIN
TRAFFICKING
MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New
York, and MICHELE M. LEONHART, the Acting Administrator of the United States
Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA"), announced that BASHIR NOORZAI, a
former Mujahideen warlord and strong ally of the Taliban, was found guilty by a
federal jury in Manhattan of conspiring to import and distribute heroin in the
United States. According to the evidence at trial:
NOORZAI, the leader of his namesake tribe, one of Afghanistan's largest and
most influential tribes, owned opium fields in the southern province of
Kandahar, Afghanistan, and had subordinates convert the opium into heroin at
laboratories in Afghanistan's border regions. The heroin was later imported
into the United States, hidden in suitcases and on ships. As early as 1990,
NOORZAI had a network of distributors in New York City who sold his heroin.
During the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, NOORZAI raised his own army of
Mujahideen fighters, financed and armed with drug proceeds. After the Russian
army had quit Afghanistan, NOORZAI ruled western Kandahar, establishing and
controlling his own police, border guards and courts.
NOORZAI had met MULLAH MOHAMMAD OMAR, the eventual supreme Taliban leader, in
the 1980s while the two fought in the same Mujahideen faction. In the
mid-1990s, when the Taliban was ascending to power in Afghanistan, NOORZAI used
his influence in Kandahar to assist OMAR in securing the position of supreme
leader of the Taliban. NOORZAI then provided the Taliban with arms, including
AK-47 assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers, and anti-tank
weapons, as well as vehicles and a portion of the proceeds of his narcotics
trafficking activities. In 2001, after the United States began military
operations in Afghanistan, NOORZAI, at OMAR's request, provided the Taliban
with 400 of his own fighters to wage a battle against Afghanistan's Northern
Alliance in Mazar-e-Sharif.
In return for his financial and other support, the Taliban permitted NOORZAI to
continue his drug trafficking activities with impunity. In addition, NOORZAI
and his co-conspirators benefitted from advance knowledge of the Taliban's 2000
opium ban, and used that information to stockpile opium and sell it at a
tremendous profit after the ban caused opium prices to spike.
NOORZAI was found guilty of both counts against him-one count of conspiring to
import heroin, and to manufacture and distribute heroin knowing that it would
be imported into the United States, and one count of conspiring to distribute
heroin. NOORZAI faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a
maximum sentence of life in prison. NOORZAI is scheduled to be sentenced on
January 7, 2009, by United States District Judge DENNY CHIN, who presided over
the trial.
Prior to his arrest, NOORZAI had been designated by the Department of Justice
to the Consolidated Priority Organization Target ("CPOT") list, a list of the
most powerful and dangerous narcotics traffickers in the world. His successful
prosecution is the result of a long-term investigation by this Office's
International Narcotics Trafficking Unit, the DEA's New York Field Division,
its Kabul, Afghanistan and Islamabad, Pakistan Country Offices, and the New
York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes special agents of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. The DEA's Special Operations Division also assisted in
the investigation and prosecution.
"BASHIR NOORZAI supported an extremist Taliban regime with the proceeds of his
worldwide heroin trade. With today's verdict, NOORZAI's decades-long criminal
career has finally ended, and one of Afghanistan's most prolific heroin
exporters now faces a potential life sentence to be served in a U.S. prison. We
owe a debt of gratitude to the men and women of the DEA and FBI who made
countless sacrifices to bring him to justice," said United States Attorney
MICHAEL J. GARCIA.
Assistant United States Attorneys ANIRUDH BANSAL and DAVID O'NEIL are in charge
of the prosecution.
Mark R. Taylor
Take no prisoners!
http://americantruckersatwar.com
AmericanTruckersAtWar Discussion Group
http://youtube.com/ironponyexpress
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