Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in - United States ...

In late January 2012, the Department of State’s (DoS) Bureau for International Narcotics and
Law Enforcement Affairs hosted Afghan Minister of Counter Narcotics Zarar Moqbel Osmani in
Washington, D.C., for meetings with representatives from DoS, DoD, DEA, the Office of
National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), and USAID, as well as several Senators. Minister
Osmani visited the Second Genesis Rehabilitation Center and the DEA Training Center at
Quantico. He also participated in the opening session of the U.S.-UK bilateral meeting on
Afghan CN on January 26. During the visit, Osmani requested U.S. support for CN-oriented
alternative livelihoods efforts, previewed the objectives in the updated Afghan National Drug
Control Strategy, and emphasized the need for drug demand reduction activities and the
independence of the CNPA. The visit was Minister Osmani’s first official trip to Washington,
D.C., in his current capacity.
In February 2012, the UN convened a meeting of principals from the Paris Pact, a UNODCsponsored
partnership of more than 50 member nations and organizations focused on decreasing
availability of, demand for, and trafficking in Afghan opiates. At the meeting, government
ministers stressed the need to reduce drug trafficking, opium poppy cultivation, and narcotics
production in Afghanistan. On the margins of the Paris Pact meeting, DoS representatives held
consultations with Central Asian partners to discuss the United States’ Central Asia
Counternarcotics Initiative (CACI), which builds on established efforts to prosecute drug
traffickers and disrupt their networks in Afghanistan. Through CACI, the DEA will work with
interested partners in Central Asia to establish investigative units that can develop targets using
sensitive intelligence, share information with counterpart units in Afghanistan, and attack
transnational drug networks through the Central Asia Regional Information and Coordination
Center.
On a bilateral basis, the U.S. Government continued its work with the Russian Federation on
counternarcotics issues via the U.S.-Russia Counternarcotics Working Group (CNWG) (formed
as part of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission in July 2009). In November 2011,
the co-chairs of the CNWG (ONDCP Director Gil Kerlikowske and Russian Federal Drug
Control Service Director Viktor Ivanov) met in Chicago to discuss a continued partnership to
address the Afghan drug trade. Since 2009, the CNWG has greatly improved law enforcement
information sharing and collaboration between the U.S. and Russia on Afghanistan drug issues.
At the meeting, the CNWG agreed to continue their efforts through 2012 by cooperating on law
enforcement investigations and countering the drug trade’s illicit financial flows emanating from
Afghanistan.
At the regional level, the Northern Route Working Group (NRWG) is a multilateral initiative
designed to increase general drug law enforcement cooperation and information sharing among
its members in order to target transnational drug trafficking organizations responsible for the
flow of illicit narcotics throughout the Central Asia region. The NRWG is comprised of DEA
representatives serving in Almaty, Dushanbe, Kabul, Moscow, and Tashkent, as well as
members of the CNPA, the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, the State Drug Control
Service of Kyrgyzstan, and the Tajikistan Drug Control Agency. The most recent meeting was
held March 29-30, 2012 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
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