PRESS RELEASE

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Russia Keeping Up the Pressure on Turkey, Hits at Drug Trafficking

Dec. 22, 2015 (EIRNS)—Sputnik reports that Russia has revealed that Turkish drug labs are processing Afghan heroin. Viktor Ivanov, who heads Russia’s Federal Service for the Control of Narcotics (FKSN), said that Russian and Afghan drug police confiscated more than 600 kilograms of opium this month in the Afghan province of Baglan in a joint operation.

"The cargo traveled along the route of Badakhshan-Doshi-Bamiyan-Herat, then further through Iran and into Turkey, where the opium was processed in well-equipped laboratories ... into high-quality heroin, and then was to be sent to Europe and Russia,"

Ivanov said during an anti-narcotics committee meeting. He also said that Daesh, (a.k.a. Islamic State, ISIS/ISIL), is profiting from the trade.

"According to our figures, the amount of revenue could be from $200 to $500 million annually," Ivanov told journalists.

Russia continues to put pressure on Turkish companies operating in Russia. One such company, Gersan R-Zao, the Russian subsidiary of a Turkish power-distribution equipment maker, was told to halt operations for 60 days after it failed an environmental inspection, according to the company’s written statement to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) on Dec. 18.

"After a control [inspection] in the production facility of Gersan R-Zao, 90% of which is owned by our company in the Kaliningrad Free Economic Zone, by the Kaliningrad Region Environmental Monitoring and Control Branch on Dec. 10, a decision has been made to halt operations in the facility for 60 days upon claims it failed environmental regulations without making any prior warning. The authority has also asked for the troubleshooting of the problems,"

said the statement.