MOSCOW. May 15 (Interfax) - The Western military operation in Afghanistan brought about a catastrophic growth in Afghan heroin production, Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) chief Viktor Ivanov said.
"The areas under opium poppy crops reduced eight times in the Taliban period, and grew 30 times to the historical maximum of 250,000 hectares in the period of Operation Enduring Freedom," Ivanov said at an anti-drug conference in Moscow on Thursday.
"Now we have to state an obvious and fundamental failure of efforts of the international community and frankly admit that the international community has ended up in a fiasco," he said.
Keynote decisions concerning the suppression of Afghan drugs which were made in 1998 at the 20th special session of the UN General Assembly have not been fulfilled, he said.
"Since the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001 the UN has objectively recorded an explosive and catastrophic growth of drug production in Afghanistan," Ivanov said.
In turn, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Yuri Fedotov said the consumption of Afghan heroin had been growing in some countries, including the United States. "There is evidence of the growing heroin consumption in the United States and some countries of Latin America," Fedotov said at the anti-drug conference.
"We have been lately witnessing a surge in Afghan heroin supply to West and East Africa," he said.