MOSCOW. March 30 (Interfax-AVN) - President Vladimir Putin admitted that drug trafficking and related crime pose serious security threats to Russia.
"We should openly say that a stable, well organized and broad network of drug traffickers has emerged in Russia that includes drug production, transportation and dealing," he told the board of the Federal Drug Control Service on Tuesday.
"The Russian drug trafficking community is becoming part of the international drug mafia and has organized all kinds of operations throughout the chain, including the legalization of drug-related incomes abroad," he said.
Putin said one of the drug control service's priorities is "to minimize and later liquidate the financial foundations of the drug mafia."
"The economic foundation of the drug mafia should be undermined. This mainly requires combating the money laundering of the criminal business and blocking the channels of such money flows," he said. It is the service's job "to detect the channels of such flows," he added.
Putin expressed hope that the agency would effectively cooperate with the recently formed financial intelligence service in these matters.