Moscow investigator Viktor Ivanov says he has found conclusive evidence that Turkish drugs labs are helping the terrorist group rake in millions as the war of words between the the two countries continues to escalate.
He told journalists that the the slick operation is directly helping ISIS in its bid to establish an evil Caliphate, saying a "spike" in the group's number of fighters can be directly linked to successful shipments.
Relations between Moscow and Ankara have frozen over in the aftermath of the shooting down of a Russian fighter jet over Syria, which Vladimir Putin has likened to an act of war.
The latest claims are said to be based on the results of a joint probe into drug smuggling carried out by Russian and Afghan investigators.
Mr Ivanov told an anti-narcotics committee meeting in Moscow: "The cargo traveled through Badakhshan-Doshi-Bamiyan-Herat, then further 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.
“The spike in ISIS fighters corresponds with the annual increase of drug smuggling in the Middle East, which is confirmed by the growing number of heroin seizures in the region."
The operation got under way in mid-December and was designed to help close down heroin smuggling routes into Russia and Europe.
It was carried out by Afghanistan’s Kabul Gates anti-drug unit with intelligence support from the Federal Drug Control Service (FKSN).
Police who stopped an Afghan truck travelling towards Turkey allegedly found 600kg of opium destined for laboratories, where it would be turned into heroin to be sold on the streets of Britain.
According to FKSN investigators ISIS has used drug trafficking to boost its number four-fold over the last year. And the terrorists could increasingly turn to the sale of narcotics for profit and Western airstrikes destroy more and more oilfields under their control.
Today a report from an independent think tank calculated that the terrorists' so-called Caliphate has shrunk by 14 percent this year due to airstrikes and strong gains by Kurdish forces.
Russia's president Vladimir Putin has vowed to wipe out the maniacal terrorists and has said he would even use a nuclear missile to destroy them if necessary, Express reported.
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