Pakistan near Afghan border

[Mraka]

In Pakistan there is a whole region close to the Afghan border,where government has no voice.It is run by local clans in a patriarchal way.They do much drug trafficking as for ex women are not allowed to be surched.

[Baby-Girl16]

TRUE

[sasa]

The new kids on the block. Heavily involved in prostitution and trafficking of illegal aliens, the Albanian and new Pakistani gangsters are now using their foothold in the UK to launch themselves into the drug business, particularly the heroin trade. Police fear bloody clashes with Turkish and Pakistani gangsters who currently control the market. New Pakistani gangsters may clash with there old Pakistani counterparts to take over the drugs empire, Studies show that the most influential and ruthless ringleader of the pp gang called Prince Riz is the most dangerous and frequent threat to the heroin trade, Prince Riz is a millionaire gangster from eastlondon heavily involved in money laundering, protection rackets, extortion, importing humans from his native country pakistan, taxing top end clubs and ring leading local criminal activities in the area, this high profile criminal has been described as the new Reggie Kray

By the guardian on 07.11.05 11:41 pm

[sasa]

A detailed document by the Institute for Security Studies, edited by senior researcher Peter Gastrow, revealed this week that along with the better-known Nigerian crime syndicates and the Russian and Chinese mafia, the Pakistanis were the main international organised crime group in South Africa.

'Mandrax is brought into South Africa through the ports and harbours'
However, the document - Penetrating State And Business: Organised Crime In Southern Africa - touches only briefly on how heroin from Pakistan is flooding local markets.

Recently there have been several investigations into so-called heroin routes, which snake down Africa from poppy fields in Afghanistan to Pakistan, where opium is processed into heroin and then moved to markets in central and southern Africa.

According to experts, heroin addiction is rising rapidly in South Africa.

The document did reveal, however, that "historically" Pakistani networks had been centrally involved in the trafficking of Mandrax tablets and its active ingredient, methaqualone.

"Mandrax is brought into South Africa through the ports and harbours in containers, or overland through neighbouring countries. Pakistani-linked networks also operate out of Mozambique, which is increasingly being used as a trans-shipment point for Mandrax and methaqualone destined for South African markets. Mozambique is also a key transit point for heroin destined for South Africa or for transporting on to European markets."

'It is relatively new on the South African market'
The document also said that recently "significant amounts" of hashish had been brought into South Africa for local distribution.

"Pakistani networks are also involved in the distribution of a product known as temple ball, which, according to drug users, is a mixture of opium and hashish. It is relatively new on the South African market and Durban appears to be one of the main points of distribution.

"Some of the Pakistani networks appear to have linked up with other transnational groups, such as the Chinese: more than 100 people attended a recent meeting of Pakistani and Chinese organised crime members at Sun City. Unlike the Chinese, however, the Pakistani networks are not highly structured. They are rather a number of loose networks, overlapping in many cases with South African criminal networks," the document states.

The two authors of the section dealing exclusively with South African organised crime, Jenni Irish and Kevin Qhobosheane, said Pakistani organised crime groups were among the least documented in the country.

"They are also very difficult to penetrate and define. One reason is that there are close cultural and religious ties between Pakistani groups and many local criminals, making it easy for Pakistani groups to merge with their local counterparts and become absorbed into local communities and, conversely, making it difficult to differentiate between them or to detect the Pakistanis as identifiable transnational groups."

However, there was also a "long-standing history" of co-operation around smuggling operations, especially the trades in Mandrax and counterfeit goods.

"Initially local people dealt directly with criminal groups in Pakistan. More recently some Pakistani drug dealers have moved to South Africa and, although they continue to work alongside local criminal networks, they are also settling in the country, developing new relationships and playing a role in diversifying and developing new markets.

"Unlike Nigerians, who developed structures independent of Nigerian-based networks, Pakistani groups in South Africa still have extremely close ties and contacts with home-based networks."

The document states that in Gauteng and the Western Cape, sweatshops run by the Pakistani networks used the labour of Pakistani immigrants, often brought in specifically to work, as well as refugees from other African countries. South Africa labour was also used, but to a lesser extent.

"Criminal networks also take advantage of the variety of Pakistanis wanting to come to South Africa for legitimate reasons, such as refugees and social and economic migrants. For example, the networks offer to assist with securing identity documents for immigrants, but then use the identity documents for illegal purposes.

"Those who are helped by the networks in securing residence permits or through having travel costs paid, may be forced to repay their debts by working in sweatshops or by selling illegal goods on the streets. Like Nigerians, many Pakistani people who enter the country illegally marry local South African women in order to secure their stay in South Africa. They also use false identity documents brought through contacts in the department of home affairs."


The Institute for Security Studies' analysis of organised crime in South Africa - including the emergence of the Pakistani grouping - was based on interviews with police, department of justice staff, individuals in the corporate sector and people with links to organised crime. It also used documentation, reports, press articles and academic papers.

[sasa]

“To win the loyalty of a person is the most difficult task in the world,” Dawood Ibrahim, 46, would tell his brother gangsters. This former street urchin and son of a Mumbai police constable seems to have managed to earn it manifold. Hated by many, Dawood’s employees and associates adore him, and would go to any length for him, including murder.

People who have worked for this Mumbai underworld don, known as the ‘Gold Man,’ maintain he never abandons his men. He is also unfailingly courteous and unstintingly generous. “If you are having dinner with him, he will make sure he starts after everyone else. If you ask him for money, he will never question how much you want. He hands out a substantial sum and if you ask how much of it you can keep, he says, ‘It’s all yours, take whatever you want.’” But Dawood does not brook fools either, or those who disobey him. And those who betray him usually do so at the cost of their lives.

Ibrahim lives like a king. Home is a palatial house spread over 6,000 square yds, boasting a pool, tennis courts, snooker room and a private, hi-tech gym. He wears designer clothes, drives top of the line Mercedes’ and luxurious four-wheel drives, sports a half-a-million rupee Patek Phillipe wristwatch, and showers money on starlets and prostitutes. He bought Lahore model, Saba, with whom he reportedly had a passionate involvement, a house and a car. Nor does he shirk his obligations: Mandakini, of Ram Teri Ganga Maili fame, former Bollywood actress with whom he had a child is reportedly still being supported by him.

Carousing through the night, Dawood and his companions quit only at dawn and collectively offer fajr prayers. This has been Dawood Ibrahim’s routine for several years.

From petty street urchin to don of the Mumbai underworld, Dawood’s life makes for a fascinating story.

Dawood seems to have realised early in life that crime paid. His petty exploits sometimes landed him in trouble, but his father’s position as a policeman saved him from being apprehended on several occasions. Soon the Mumbai underworld started taking note of him.

Initially operating independently, Dawood formed his own gang, which grew into a mega crime network over the years. Both Hindus and Muslims worked for him, pursuing his by now multiple business interests, which included drugs, mediating in business disputes, evicting tenants from old buildings and clearing land for purposes of construction.

Ibrahim’s interests soon led him to Bollywood where he became a major film financier. At his lavish parties, there was never a shortage of the mega stars of the day. “They wouldn’t dare refuse an invitation,” says a friend, who maintains that those who opted out on account of shooting schedules would suddenly find their dates had been cancelled or postponed.

Growing Hindu-Muslim tension, fuelled by other underworld dons, which climaxed after the Babri mosque demolition, changed everything. The ensuing blasts in Mumbai, and the communal riots triggered by the underworld itself, caused the Dawood Ibrahim gang to splinter. One of his top lieutenants, Chota Rajan, often described by Ibrahim as one of his ‘nauratans,’ (nine jewels) defected and formed his own group consisting mainly of Hindu boys. Thereafter, Ibrahim was accused of masterminding the blasts, even though he was out of town at the time. He could never return to India. Dubai, which might have been a natural alternative residence, was ruled out because of an Interpol alert for Dawood’s arrest – the UAE and India have an extradition treaty.

Thus Dawood fled to Pakistan, managing also to subsequently smuggle his family, comprising his wife, four daughters and a son, and certain close associates and their families out of Mumbai. (One daughter, 12, subsequently died of malaria and is buried in Pakistan). Today they are all Pakistani passport holders.

For the Muslims of Mumbai, Dawood’s role in the blasts makes him a hero. “You cannot imagine the behaviour of the Hindus towards us before the blasts. They would hurl insults at our veiled women, ridicule us and mock our beards. The blasts changed everything. Now they cannot underestimate our strength; they are afraid of us,” said a shopkeeper from Dawood Ibrahim’s old mohalla on Mohammad Ali Road, a largely Muslim neighbourhood, whose residents shun the press and fiercely guard their privacy.

In Pakistan meanwhile, Dawood managed to establish another huge empire, comprising both legitimate and illegitimate businesses. In fact, the last few years have witnessed Dawood emerge as the don of Karachi.

Dawood and his men have made heavy investments in prime properties in Karachi and Islamabad, and are major players in the Karachi bourse and in the parallel credit system business – hundi. Dawood is also said to have rescued Pakistan’s Central Bank which was in crisis at one point, by providing a huge dollar loan. His businesses include gold and drug smuggling. The gang is also allegedly heavily involved in match-fixing. Dawood’s influence among the Pakistani cricket players is so well known that a senior Pakistan cricket official met Dawood to get the names of those Pakistani cricketers involved in betting.

Some of the Pakistani cricket players admit that at one time or another, they have sought Dawood’s help, financial or otherwise. Javed Miandad is allegedly very close to Dawood Ibrahim, and his recent stint in cricket, despite the opposition from other players, was reportedly at Dawood’s behest.

Dawood’s sphere of influence has also encompassed the business community, with businessmen increasingly approaching Dawood to settle their financial disputes with other businessmen or for financial bailouts. Some former MQM militants are apparently also working for Dawood as trouble-shooters. However, Dawood’s growing influence has irked Karachi’s powerful ethnic group, the mohajirs, who feel Dawood is trespassing on their domain as more and more people are now looking to Dawood to sort out their problems. “Earlier, whether it was a case of financial dispute or the construction or regularisation of an illegal building, people came to us for help. Now all of them are going to Dawood,” remarked a former leader of Altaf Hussain’s MQM.

Dawood’s business activities are not confined to the subcontinent. His network extends to several countries of the African continent, and to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Dubai, Germany, France and UK. His net worth has been estimated at close to 30 billion rupees.

Meanwhile, not only have the Pakistani authorities turned a blind eye to the gang’s activities within Pakistan, but many in the corridors of power have partaken of Dawood’s hospitality. Dawood often throws lavish mujras for Pakistani politicians and bureaucrats. A recent guest was a former caretaker Prime Minister.

These are not the only members of the establishment who have close ties with Dawood. He is said to have the protection of assorted intelligence agencies. In fact, Dawood and his men move around the city guarded by heavy escorts of armed men in civvies believed to be personnel of a top Pakistani security agency.

A number of government undercover agents, who came into contact with Dawood because of their official duties, are now, in fact, working for him. “A major serves him a glass of water. Nearly all the men who surround him for security reasons are either retired or serving officers,”claims an MQM activist. “And he keeps them happy – buying them expensive apartments and showering them with favours. So they are more loyal to Dawood than the government of Pakistan.”

Why is he allowed to operate with such impunity?

According to informed sources, Dawood is Pakistan’s number one espionage operative. His men in Mumbai help him get whatever information he needs for Pakistan. Rumour has it that sometimes his men in Karachi accompany Pakistani intelligence agents to the airports to scan arriving passengers and identify RAW agents. Both Dawood and his lieutenant Chota Shakeel, who have international satellite telephones and mobile roaming facilities, are in constant touch with their people in India and are allegedly able to garner valuable information for local agencies.

But Dawood has not severed all ties with India – or even with Hindu nationalists.

Dawood and his men might claim to be the champions of the Indian Muslims, but he continues to have close business ties with the Hindu mafia. One of his close associates claims that Dawood even has joint business interests with the son of the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena leader, Bal Thackeray, public pronouncements of fierce enmity between the two notwithstanding.

There is evidence to indicate that Dawood is also still financing Bollywood films. Early this year, the Mumbai police arrested Bharat Shah, the producer of the Indian film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, after proving that the film was financed by Dawood Ibrahim. And there is nostalgia for the home left behind. Dawood is said to often cry for Mumbai.

[sasa]

As with self-professed Indian crime boss Chhota Rajan. Wanted in Bombay for crimes that include attempted murder and extortion, he was at the apartment of his Bangkok-based aide Michael d'Souza on Sept. 15 when it was stormed by gunmen. Rajan, 40, was wounded, while d'Souza died.

The mafia don was apparently lying low in the Thai capital to avoid tightened security in Australia, another haunt of his, as well as the hitmen of his sworn rival, Daoud Ibrahim. Ibrahim and Rajan were once Bombay underworld allies but fell out over the 1993 bomb blasts in the Indian financial capital, which Indian police blamed on Ibrahim. Since then, Ibrahim, who Indian authorities believe has links with Pakistani intelligence, has been in self-exile in Dubai and Karachi. But the two have continued to wage a vicious Asiawide gang war. Rajan sees himself as a Hindu patriot battling the renegade Muslim on behalf of the Indian government. As intelligence and diplomatic sources in Bangkok tell it, for the attempted hit against Rajan, a team of seven Ibrahim gunmen (all Pakistanis) flew into the Thai capital, linked up with local support, acquired weapons, and then hoped to disappear into the city's throngs of South Asian tourists. Thai police managed to arrest three Pakistanis and a Thai but the four other Ibrahim hitmen are still on the loose.
Take the case of Akbar Shah, the 35-year old Pakistani gang boss shot dead by police on Sept. 13. He first came to Bangkok in the early '90s and quickly found his feet in Bangkok's South Asian underworld. By 1995 Akbar Shah had set up the Seven Stars tour agency, a front for both fake passport production and people-smuggling. In October that year his men beat up two Bangladeshis from another travel agency, ostensibly in a hard-knuckle protection racket. In fact the Pakistanis were keen to collect on a 5-million-baht debt (then about $200,000) owed for fake passports by the Bangladeshi "tour operator" who was doing some people-smuggling of his own.

After escaping during a police raid, Shah continued to operate, found time to marry a Thai wife and for a while was actually providing the police information, apparently on the activities of two rival Pakistani gangs. "Our work sometimes needs help from gangsters," says one police officer. "They are sources of valuable information." Being an informant did not prevent Shah's eventual arrest and deportation to Pakistan. But early this year he returned to reclaim his old territory using a new name, a new passport and a fake visa. Then came the Sept. 13 shootout. Police say they fired in self-defense. But word that Shah failed to hit three officers from just seven meters stretches credibility. The police have denied any wrongdoing. Even Thai hospitality has its limits.

[sasa]

Lyari gang-war death toll crosses 100 mark

By A H Khanzada

KARACHI: Despite all-out efforts and strict security measures adopted by police, the intensity of Lyari gang-war has been increasing day-by-day and in one-and a-half years more than 100 people have been killed, while several hundreds have suffered injuries.

Indiscriminate firing within different localities of Lyari has now become a daily routine and apparently police seems to be helpless in maintaining peace and tranquillity within the area.

It is worth mentioning that Lyari, the oldest locality of the metropolis where people of various walks of lives, sects and tribes had been residing since hundreds of years with love and dedication, has now been emerging as a no go area for law-abiding citizens.

Since last two years residents of Lyari have been passing their lives in miserable conditions, such as killings, kidnappings, injuries, robberies, and extortions, which are created by different criminal gangs operating in the area.

Gangs have proved that they are most the active than police and influential than administration. That is why the residents of Lyari are living on the mercy of these criminals, which are moving freely within the entire locality, despite the facts that they had been declared the most wanted criminals by the government.

Two main gangs and their several outfits have been operating in almost every avenue of Lyari and their sources of earning are drugs trafficking and extortion.

The residents of Lyari and nearby areas have been paying taxes to the government as well as to these criminals for the protection of their lives and businesses.

At about 40 years ago Sher Muhammad alias Sheru and Dad Muhammad alias Dadal had started drug trafficking business in the locality and gradually they became as heads of two gangs. These two gangs initially remained cooperative with each other, but with the passage of time they became rivals.

After deaths of both ringleaders Allah Bux alias Kala Nag and Iqbal alias Babu Dacoit had take over the charge of gangs.

Before emerging of Iqbal Babu’s gang in the area there were few ruffians, but Babu Dacoit introduction increased the criminal activities. Babu Dacoit, who had been involved in more than 150 criminal cases, was nabbed by the CIA Karachi at about two years ago, but he was later granted bail in over 70 cases.

In 90s, when Kala Naag and Babu dacoit were in jail, the above-mentioned criminal gangs were regenerated and became famous with the names of ‘Rehman Dacoit’s gang’ and ‘Haji Lalu’s gang’.

On June 2004, Naeem Iqbal (27), son of Iqbal alias Babu Dacoit was gunned down, while he was sitting with his few friends near Baloch Hall.

After the murder of Naeem, his father tried to contact another criminal gangs and in this regard Babu Dacoit hold talks with Arshad Pappu to take a smooth restart in the locality.

The residents of Lyari were of the view that since last several decades we have been suffering from very hard time due to the existence of criminal groups, which were still at large.

"The Lyari area up till now stands on its footing and continues to support the PPP, but our affiliation with the PPP, the PPP government failed to save us from these criminals," they added.

A senior police officer was of the view that killings in Lyari are the result of a confrontation between two gangs, which are fighting for domination in the area.

The most attractive things for criminal gangs are drugs, arms and moonshine businesses and complete domination in the area, he said, adding that these criminals are operating under the patronage of some police official.

Recently the government had initiated a separate operation by deploying extra contingents of police and Rangers that had been supervised by the ‘able command’ of an experienced police officer, but the situation remains the same.

[sasa]

There are pakistanis all over the world.The thing that connects them is family,clan,tribe,and the area of pakistan where they come from.The main element of there success is that nobody as ever heard of the pakistani mafia.

[Str8UpMenace]

i heard that MQM gang is pretty big too they got their own political party and shyt

[sasa]

Terrorist groups and organized crime networks are increasingly working together, strengthening their ability to inflict harm on law-abiding societies with conventional weapons today, and possibly with nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in the future.

Terrorists and criminals have long been considered separate and distinct threats, with terrorists motivated by ideology and criminals by greed. But recent attacks suggest that criminal networks and terrorist groups are teaming up with growing regularity for their mutual benefit.

In fact, in some cases terrorists and criminals appear to be deeply intertwined in ways that go well beyond fleeting alliances of convenience. The Dubai-based Indian criminal Aftab Ansari is believed to have used ransom money he earned from kidnappings to help fund the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. And some people, like the Pakistan-based Indian crime boss Dawood Ibrahim, even go on to pursue dual careers as both criminal and terrorist leaders.

The connections between the two networks exist on a variety of levels — from purely tactical to strategic — including logistical support in weapons procurement, shared routes, training and some ideological overlap. As a result, in some areas it may be impossible to destroy the logistical network supporting terrorist groups without striking major blows at supporting criminal networks.

In South Asia and the Middle East in particular, a variety of criminal and terrorist organizations have been known to collaborate in international operations. The recent disclosure of the role of criminal syndicates in the nuclear smuggling network of the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan is a prime example of this troubling trend.

Nuclear transfers from Pakistan to North Korea, Libya, and Iran could not have occurred without the assistance of criminal networks. Khan used false papers and front companies in several countries to transfer the nuclear technology to other nations, and used government cargo planes to assist in deliveries to North Korea. These channels raise concerns that the inability of authorities to interrupt cooperation between organized crime and terrorist groups could lead to more dangerous nuclear transfers in the future.

Khan's middleman was a Dubai-based Sri Lankan businessman, Buhary Ayed Abu Tahir. He arranged for a Malaysian company to manufacture nuclear components for shipping to Libya, and for Libyan technicians to be trained in the use of machines that were part of the nuclear program. Tahir also assisted Khan in the transfer of centrifuge units from Pakistan to Iran.

Even if states agree to international nonproliferation treaties, the existence of criminal networks engaged in nuclear trade could allow proliferation to continue. Without knowledge of where these networks operate and who is involved, interdiction becomes extremely difficult.

At the tactical level, terrorist groups rely on organized crime networks to provide them with the necessary weaponry and munitions to undertake massive attacks and insurgencies. The routes that have been carefully constructed by criminal networks can also be extremely useful for transporting goods on behalf of terrorist groups.

For their part, criminal gangs can turn to terrorist groups to provide needed training in the use of guns and explosives, and also to provide safe passage through terrorist-controlled territory for a price.

Criminal syndicates in the Middle East and South Asia are also closely connected to terrorist groups via the illegal drug trade. Money earned from drug trafficking supports both criminal and terrorist activity.

Criminal organizations can become ideological over time, following the paths of terrorist groups. In South Asia, for example, some criminal organizations have come to acquire ideological or religious predispositions that motivate their actions, not merely cover them.

Terrorist groups will be able to continue operations as long as they can acquire the needed weaponry, financing and personnel. Closing this access is difficult, but crucial.

In addition to military cooperation to interdict terrorists, much more attention needs to be paid to promoting the rule of law, combating corruption and improving judicial proceedings in areas where terrorists have taken refuge.

Police capabilities in urban areas need to be much improved if they are to locate and disrupt criminal networks. International cooperation on extradition laws must also be strengthened, so that criminals cannot easily elude arrest by fleeing the country.

The linkages between the criminal and terror groups allow terror networks to expand and undertake large attacks internationally by leveraging criminal sources, money and transit routes. Identifying the cooperative activities between the two networks — both tactical and more enduring — is critical to ending the financial and supply lines that support both sets of groups. Underestimating their bonds could prove disastrous.

[jzanwar]

organized crime is big in the Pk.
nd if u wanna git in organized crime u gotta be rich from the beginnin.
if ur lookin for gangs like crips nd bloods u cant find em.
there r criminals and ppl like that there but not any real named or known gangs.

[sasa]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashtun_Mafia


Pashtun Mafia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Pashtun Mafia (also known as Pakhtun mafia, Pukhtun Mafia, Opium Mafia, Pathan Mafia, Drug Mafia) is a global criminal society comprising of several organizations specified by trade among the fifteen million Pashtuns in the NWFP in Pakistan (with roughly the same number of Pashtuns living in the contiguous Afghanistan).

In the 1980s, huge amounts of U.S. money flooded the region, as the Central Intelligence Agency used Pakistani proxies to fund the mujahedeen resistance to Afghanistan’s Soviet-backed government.The Soviet war in Afghanistan introduced massive quantities of small arms into Pakistan and provided capital for investment in smuggling. The spread of Pashtun diaspora reaching into the Persian Gulf- Dubai e.g includes the third -largest Pashtun population after Peshawar and Karachi -facilitated trade and smuggling throughout the region. The dug and trans border trades are all linked up to organized crime groups operating throughout the Indian Ocean periphery, former Soviet Union, and Europe.

It controls organized crime activities based in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Turkmenistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, United Kingdom, Turkey,Thailand, Canada as well as in the American states of California, Maryland, and Virginia and various other countries.[1][2][3].

Based in the Pashtun areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the group's operations extend to much of the major cities in the world.[1] It controls the drug trafficking and an enormous amount of contraband. Its illicit activities include labor racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, drug smuggling, hijacking, cargo theft, money laundering, fencing and assassinations.[1]

Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Prior the Soviet War 1950's to 1970's
1.2 Soviet War from 1979 to 1992
1.2.1 Pashtun Diaspora
2 Structure and Organization
3 Activities
3.1 Contraband & Smuggled Goods
3.2 Gun Manufacture
3.3 Car Lifting
3.4 Opium and Narcotics Production and Trafficking
3.4.1 History
3.4.2 Drug Cartels
3.4.2.1 Afridi Organization
3.4.2.2 Notezai Organization
3.4.2.3 Kuki Khel Organization
3.4.2.4 Yusufzai-Mohammadzai and Khattack Elites Organization
3.4.2.5 Noorzai Organization
3.5 Money Laundering and the Hawala System
3.6 Murders
3.6.1 Significant Murders
4 Pashtun Mafia in India
5 Political influence
6 Notable Figures
7 Prominent Organizations
8 Prominent Pashtun Mafia Locations
9 See also
10 External Links & Videos
11 References



[edit] History

[edit] Prior the Soviet War 1950's to 1970's
Afghanistan during this time was a weak rentier or allocation state. The state financed just under half of its total budget from external sources, which were used to create basic infrastructure, such as a national network of roads, and a modern police force. Despite this, rural communities remained isolated from the state and dependent on agricultural production to survive. An important new dimension was brought to the rural economy in Afghanistan in the mid-1970s when opium poppy cultivation expanded, as opium production was halted in Iran. By the late 1970s opium poppy reportedly was cultivated by most of the Pashtun provinces.


[edit] Soviet War from 1979 to 1992
During the major conflict from 1979 to 1992, the value and quantity of illicit activities grew considerably. The counter-insurgency war waged by government and Soviet troops devastated the rural subsistence economy, with food production estimated to have fallen by as much as two-thirds. Massive resource flows were directed to opposition groups, with foreign intelligence agencies using Afghan political parties in Pakistan and Iran as logistical conduits to supply opponents of the central government. Profits accumulated ed from these flows of external support were invested in, and supplemented by, a number of illicit activities. Critically, and in line with an increase in opium production in Pakistan,Afghanistan developed into a major supplier of opium, producing one-third of total global production by the mid-1980s.

The Soviet war in Afghanistan introduced massive quantities of small arms into Pakistan and provided capital for investment in smuggling. The spread of Pashtun diaspora reaching into the Persian Gulf- Dubai e.g includes the third -largest Pashtun population after Peshawar and Karachi -facilitated trade and smuggling throughout the region. The dug and trans border trades are all linked up to organized crime groups operating throughout the Indian Ocean periphery, former Soviet Union, and Europe.[4] The porous borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan had always created a niche for smuggling contraband. For the Pashtun Mafia, Central Asia can be a target due to its proximity to Europe and it borders being easily penetrated provide an excellent route for contraband.[5] Soviet War Impact Pakistan's NWFP is the region where an illicit heroin industry can be located. Poppy has been grown here for millennia. Historically the major growing areas have been in the Mahaban range of Gadoon Amazai in Swabi districts, Buner parts of the Malakand protected areas and in the upper side valleys of the Panjkora river in Dir, west of the Indus river. The NWFP is largely populated by Pakhtun tribes who are known for their warlike culture and love of weapons. The major border tribes - Waziri, Mahsud,Kakar,Achakzai,Noorzai Bhittani, Mangal, Bangash, Orakzai, khattak, Afridi, Mohmand, and Utman Khel - live under their own warlike code of Pashtunwali. During the Afghan conflict, the border tribes exploited the situation to strengthen themselves.


[edit] Pashtun Diaspora
Main article: Pashtun diaspora
The Pashtun Diaspora across the globe created a network of connecting local traders or individuals regionally and globally. Dubai has the third largest Pashtun population after Peshawar and Karachi; both important stops on the smuggler's trail. A network of ethnic Pashtuns linked smuggling to Pakistan from Dubai via Afghanistan under the cover of the ATTA.[6]


[edit] Structure and Organization
The Pashtun Mafia's criminal organizations which resemble closely structured criminal hierarchies and, with their networks of support and protection, would be identified as organized crime groups even if a relatively restrictive definition were applied. Such groups, in the words of a recent study of organized crime, seek to "govern the underworld They constitute a criminal cartel if, acting together or when a limited number of groups become dominant, they are able to regulate prices or outputs in any criminal market. In contrast, more loosely organized networks of criminal operators may constitute an organized crime group under a broad definition and indeed may acquire high levels of illicit profits, but do not seek extensive control over an illicit market or segment of it. Pashtun Organized crime groups that seek control over markets often specialize in one specific commodity--- that of protection. Importantly, organized crime is will-ing to offer protection both to legal (but poorly protected by the state) and illegal transactions.[7]


[edit] Activities

[edit] Contraband & Smuggled Goods
In the 1980s, huge amounts of U.S. money flooded the region, as the Central Intelligence Agency used Pakistani proxies to fund the mujahedeen resistance to Afghanistan’s Soviet-backed government. Smuggling of electronics, tires, crockery and textiles gave some mujahedeen commanders a way to enrich themselves and keep supporters employed. For its part, “the government of Pakistan encouraged people to invest in this business,” even supplying telephone and electricity connections for the Karkhano market.).[8] Pashtun Mafia operates 4500 shops in KarKhano Market close to Peshawar in Pakistan.[9] The Pashtun Mafia first collects tolls from from smugglers who ship foreign-made goods through the country and then illegally move the merchandise over the border to Pakistan. The products end up in places such as Peshawar’s sprawling Karkhano market. By smuggling these items through Afghanistan, traders evade Pakistan’s stiff taxes and duties on foreign goods. This allows consumers at Karkhano and other markets to enjoy large discounts compared to legally imported products. This "official trade" between Pakistan and Afghanistan through the hands of the Pashtun Mafia amounted $2 billion( although various sources record higher numbers.[10]


[edit] Gun Manufacture

Darra Adam Khel is devoted entirely to the production of ordnance., A wide variety of firearms are produced in the town, from anti-aircraft guns to pen-guns.Civil wars, foreign occupation and warlord-ism have flooded Pashtun areas with weapons. For the region, the single most significant source of weapons was the first Afghanistan war, in which weapons were procured from around the world, many of which have since flowed to Pakistan and India and to Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbors. The Afghan war provided enormous opportunities for business in illegal arms in the Pashtun areas and the culture of the AK47 Kalashnikov took firm roots in Pakistan. The Soviet war in Afghanistan introduced massive quantities of small arms into Pakistan and provided capital for investment in smuggling. Moreover, the spread of an Afghan Pashtun diaspora facilitated the arms trade and smuggling throughout the region.[11]

Pashtun Mafia has vested interest in the Darra Adam Khel Gun Market. It is a Pashtun tribal village deep in one of the steep valleys of Pakistan's FATA, has thrived as one of the world's largest unofficial arms markets. There are more than 3000 technicians and skilled laborers working in the 2.600 arms shops and five gun factories that jointly have the capacity to make 1000 guns per day. The area is dominated by the Afridi tribes and has developed into a big center for the manufacture of indigenous weapons. On sale are Chinese and Soviet style Kalashnikov automatic rifles, hand grenades and anti-aircraft guns. This weapons market is full of variety of arms , from Japanese pen pistols to rapid fire guns and communications equipment, missiles, anti-aircraft weapons, hand grenades , rocket launchers and anti-tank ammunition.[12]


[edit] Car Lifting
The Pashtun Mafia headquartered in the tribal areas of Pakistan is involved in car lifting and re selling operations in Pakistan. The car after being lifted, the vehicle changes several hands until it reaches its destination. The Pashtun mafia works behind different organizations to conceal the identity of the vehicle, have it registered and with new documents and to arrange its sale. Usually the syndicate chief maintains indirect contact with the vehicle snatcher. He gives the requirement for a particular model and the point where he will receive the snatched vehicle. The actual group consists of two to four criminals, operating on their own. They receive up to Rs 20,000 per vehicle on delivery at the pre-designated place.[13] Pashtun Mafia acquired sophisticated devices through which they change the engine and chassis numbers and number plates of the stolen vehicles in such a way that it cannot be detected at the forensic science laboratories of the police department. Pashtun Mafia car theft rackets don't have any problem in shifting the stolen vehicles to Afghanistan, because of the long border.Besides, Afghanistan, lucrative markets for these cars exist also in the Provincially Administrated Tribal Area (Pata), owing to non-extension of the Custom Act there. Thus the stolen vehicles are driven to Pata, where they ply on the roads marked as non-custom paid (NCP), from where they can easily be shifted to Afghanistan. Car-lifting had become the most profitable business after narco-trade the world over and for the Pashtun Mafia. The car-lifters have at their disposal foreign-made master keys, that comprised a complete set of 26 keys of different size and shape and are used according to the circumstances lifting the vehicles soon transport them to the tribal belt, where the vehicles are taken apart into pieces and then sold as spares in.Master key meant for the rescue organizations, who use it during relief operations in emergency. Even, the government of Pakistan does not have the same key, whereas the Pashtun mafia involved in the car-lifting had the same device, which had given them upper hand over the government departments responsible for halting the crime. Most of the lifted cars in Pakistan are taken to tribal areas or nearby NWFP districts like DI Khan and Bannu. After snatching or lifting, the stolen vehicles, are then driven to tribal areas or safest places in settled areas, where they are cut into pieces and the spares are sold in the market.A new stolen car is being sold for around Rs 60,000 to Rs 100,000 in these areas. Cars stolen from Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore are being sold in Mansehra, Kotli, Bagh, Mirpur and Muzaffarabad, sources said, adding that, quake-hit areas administrations did not bother to check the documents of these vehicles. They said car-lifters used the under construction Motorway’s Burhan Interchange to reach Mardan as this route was quite safe for them because of no check posts on the way. The car-lifters disassemble the vehicles into pieces and smuggle these to Afghanistan via the Torkham Border, sources said. Cars like Suzuki Bolan is in great demand in the mountainous areas of NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).[13] Pashtun Gangs after snatching or the markets in Peshawar. Shoba bazaar and Kabari bazaar are replete with second hand parts of the vehicles.[14]


[edit] Opium and Narcotics Production and Trafficking

[edit] History
The Islamic revolution in Iran closed the old traffic routes to the West and the Afghan war led many Afghan poppy growers not only to shift production of poppy and heroin across the border into Pakistan's Pashtun tribal belt and NWFP, but also use Pakistan as the main trans-shipment point for heroin traveling westwards. In the late 1980's the US's Cold War strategies in Afghanistan, combined with the Pakistani perception of a threat to Pashtun nationalism and threat to territorial integrity in NWFP and Baluchistan, led the intelligence agencies in Pakistan and the US to deflect money from heroin trafficking to support the war in Afghanistan. As a result Pashtun cultivators produced around 90 percent of the world's high grade heroin and its largest supplier overseen by an estimated 40 Pashtun Mafia drug cartels.[15]


[edit] Drug Cartels
As far as the major narcotics network in the NWFP are concerned, four significant drug networks appear to be functioning in the province - the Gandaf traders, the Yusufzai, Mohammedzai and Khattak elites. They have established personal contacts with the key corridors of power and a base from which they promote their business interests. The best example of this is Zia-ul-Haq who did have an entourage who used their position to promote criminal interests including narcotics. Two of his pilots used presidential aircraft to smuggle heroin - one to the US during a state visit. Zia's banker and chief financial adviser, Hamid Hasnain was arrested in 1985 as part of a ring smuggling heroin to Europe through Norway zonal head of Habib Bank. No group is more important to the future of narcotics trafficking in and through Pakistan than the Afridi mafia. The Afridi Pashtuns are the border smugglers and raiders of Pakistan par excellence. The location of their territory in a crescent around Peshawar from South to West and their holding of the Khyber Pass, the great northern gateway to the India subcontinent has made them a factor to be reckoned with by all in the valley of Peshawar - Mughal, Durrani, Sikh, British and the Pakistani.[15]


[edit] Afridi Organization

Pir Sayed Gailani,Prominent Pashtun Mafia member and Drugpin affiliated with Afridi OrganizationOrganization headed by Haji Ayub Afridi, Iqbal Beg, Anwar Khattack, Alman Shah and Iqbal Shah. Based largely in Khyber Agency, the syndicate has major drug control in the region. The leading figure is Haji Ayub Afridi, whose election to the National Assembly from Federally Adinstrated Tribal Areas in 1990 provoked intense international cristicism.

Other Drug cartels comprise are led by Momin Khan Afridi, a former member of the National Assembly from FATA,the syndicate also includes well-known presee barons with strong political and intelligence links.

The Afridis took to the heroin business from the very beginning involving themselves in all phases of the product cycle from cash advances to growers to collecting the opium base and moving it to refine laboratories, to transporting heroin throughout Pakistan and into international channels. As early as 1980, the Khyber agency began to harbour refining "laboratories" and by 1984, the Agency reportedly had 60 such laboratories in the operation. Pakistan's biggest drug baron Haji Ayub Afridi had access to former President Ishaq Khan (a Pakhtun from the Bangash belt of Bannu district).[15]


[edit] Notezai Organization
One of the major drug cartels led by Ali Mohammad Notezai, Haji Sheikh Dost Notezai and Asim Kud, both members of the provenicial assembly , are well entrenched in the provincial power structure[15]


[edit] Kuki Khel Organization
One of the major drug barons in the NWFP in the 1980s was Malik Wali Khan Kuki Khel, leader of the Afridis and a former member os the National Assembly (1960-1962).In 1984 , with heroin now embedded in the Pashtun Mafia product line, the government began to pressurize the organization to close the heroin labs in its vicinity. Malik Wali Kuki Khel denounced the governments attempt to control the natural walth and raised is own private militia to force a boycott of the 1985 Pakistani elections. Malik Momin Khan Afridi is an old narcotics trafficker , who began operations through Thailand under cover of a Peshawar bases import/export business. He got elected to the National Assembly in 1958.Momin Khan essentially purchased his seat by buying off enough electors- the tribal seats all have a restricted franchise and none had more than 700 voters Haji Ayub Afridi cited as the biggest drug baron in Pakistan by a CIA report supported General Zia and cooperated with the ISI in its large scale efforts to arm and assist the Afghan Mujahideen.


[edit] Yusufzai-Mohammadzai and Khattack Elites Organization
The Yusufzai-Mohammadzai and the Khattack elted are entrenched in the elite political , military and industrial circles of Pakistan.The majority of Pashtuns (recruited in the Pakistan's army) belong to these tribes.One of the section of the Yusafzais who made it big was Lieutenant General Fazal Haq.One of General Zia Ul Haq's key protegees, he served as Zia's long term Governor of NWFP and key adviser on the Afghanistan conflict.In 1990,he allied with Nawaz Sharif and won a seat in the Provincial Assembly.Throughout his career in the NWFP he was known as a major head of heroin drug trafficking. During his governorship,he led the government in it's Khyber Heroin was between the Afridi Organization and the Yousufzai elites. [15]


[edit] Noorzai Organization

Bashir Noorzai,The Head of the Pashtun Mafia drug cartel : Noorzai OrganizationFounded by Bashir Noorzai a prominent member of the Pashtun Mafia; it is an international heroin-trafficking organization; responsible for manufacturing and transporting heroin in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Noorzai Organization then arranged for the heroin to be imported into the United States and other countries and sold for tens of millions of dollars. The founder Bashir Noorzai controlled fields in Afghanistan where poppies were grown and harvested to generate opium.After the opium was harvested, the Noorzai Organization used laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan to process the opium into heroin.Bashir Noorzai and his co-conspirators arranged to transport the $50 million worth of heroin from Afghanistan into the United States and other countries. President George W. Bush had previously identified Bashir Noorzai as one of the world’s most-wanted drug kingpins on June 1, 2004, pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.[16]

The re-opening of the Quetta-Kandahar-Herat-Ashgabat road by the Taliban, partially financed by the Pashtun Mafia, considerably helped the development of drug trafficking in Turkmenistan. However, it is through Tajikistan that trafficking has most increased over the past two years. Indeed, after the Taliban proscribed opium production in 2000, the 2001 harvest was a mere 185 tons and, of this, only 35 tons were produced in Taliban-held areas while 150 tons came from United Front-controlled regions. In northeastern Afghanistan - mainly in Badakhshan - opium poppy cultivation more than doubled between 2000 and 2001.[3]


[edit] Money Laundering and the Hawala System

Pashtun Hawaldar at work doing money transactionsThe hawala system relies on the extensive networks of mainly Pashtun diaspora in Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Europe, and the United Arab Emirates. The groups link to the political, religious, and socio-economic networks within the core countries of Central Asia, three of which share a border with Afghanistan, and well beyond the region to the Middle East, the UK, and the US. Anecdotal evidence points to close relations between different regional centers. Typically, each province connects to its closest neighbor; for example, the provincial mar- kets in the north, at Mazar-i-Sharif and Faizabad, are articulated toward Tajikistan and Pakistan, while the markets in the west are articulated toward Iran. The presence of the respective foreign currencies provides confirmation of these close regional ties. In the case of southern Afghanistan, the markets depend on trading centers in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). extensive networks have also developed throughout East Asia. Discussions with most hawaladars alluded to the importance of China to their business. Trading families in the Pashtun Mafia commented on the extension of their links to China and Japan, and often explained how they would establish their own hawala businesses as a "support center for their trade. Two major provinces in the South, Helmand and Kandahar, are the next focus of enquiry. Helmand not only accounts for more than aquarter of the total area under poppy cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan, it also dominates the country's opium trad- ing networks. Located at the heart of the Pashtun belt, the province is therefore ideally placed to exploit the extensive Pashtun trading networks that reach many of the world's key financial sites.[17]


[edit] Murders

[edit] Significant Murders
Kenneth Smith, an open water swimming champion from South Africa in Oct 2007 about his possible involvement with Pashtun mafia drug-dealers. Smith's plastic-wrapped body was found in Peshawar;there are conflicting reports that he was possibly shot, and/or poisoned or died from an overdose of drugs.[18]

[edit] Pashtun Mafia in India
Karim Lala (1906 -1988[19]) was born as Abdul Karim Sher Khan in Kunar province of Afghanistan. He was a prominent member of the infamous Pashtun Mafia, and is widely known to be the founder and pioneer of the Indian mafia of Mumbai in India. He went to work in Mumbai’s docks in the early 1940s via Peshawar, but his rise to prominence, along with Haji Mastan and Varadarajan Mudaliar, is now part of film lore. Karim Lala and his fellow mafia leaders were rooted in Mumbai. They were involved in smuggling gold, running gambling and liquor dens, extortion rackets and selling Hashish. Karim Lala died from a heart attack at the age of eighty-two.Dawood Ibrahim the current don of the Indian Mafia used to work for Karim Lala.[20])

Lala donated to charitable causes in central Bombay, where he lived. He was also active in forming an association of Pashtuns in Maharashtra and made it a point to meet Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan when he visited Bombay in the early eighties. Karim Lala was picked by the police whenever the Pashtun gang, led by his nephew Samad Khan, created major trouble for the law-enforcers. In fact, he was arrested as late as 1995 for threatening a woman in a property dispute. The Pashtun Mafia killed Dawood Ibrahim's younger brother ; Shabir at Worli-Prabhadevi in 1981 started a spiral of violence which ended with the decimation of the Pathan gang. The last to be killed was Rahim Khan, Karim Lala’s brother, in 1986 at Mahalakshmi Saatrasta in Bombay. After that incident, Karim Lala bought peace with Dawood and took voluntary retirement.[21]).

Dawood Ibrahim the leading mafia figure if the Indian Underworld has links to the Pashtun Mafia.And during his peak was working with the Pashtun Mafia in smuggling narcotics.[22]

[edit] Political influence
Governor of Helmand; Mohammad Daud was sacked in December 2006 as a result of pressure from the Pashtun Mafia on the Afghanistan Government.[23]
The re-opening of the Quetta-Kandahar-Herat-Ashgabat road by the Taliban, was partially financed by the Pashtun mafia ; to boost development of drug trafficking in Turkmenistan.[24]

[edit] Notable Figures
Prominent individuals of the Pashtun Mafia organized crime Name Notes
Abdul Qadir Governor of his home province of Nangarhar was a central figure controlling the growth and export of heroin, and that he had links to the CIA.[25]
Baz Mohammad Major drugpin extradited the US and sentenced to 15 years by a Manhattan Federal court.[26]
Bashir Rahmany Responsible for the Distribution of the Baz Mohammad Organization’s heroin to customers in New York..[26]
Haji Ayub Afridi High on Pakistan's most wanted list, said to be dealing in hashish and heroin.[27]
Hazrat Ali Although the new governor is the elder brother of Haji Qadeer, he has failed to exert any discipline on the warlords. Hazrat Ali belongs to the Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani-led Jamiat-i-Islami Afghanistan and receives direct orders from General Mohammad Qasim Fahim, defense minister in the central government of Hamad Karzai. ... The situation has become so grim in this region for Pakistan that Hazrat Ali even creates problems for Pakistani security forces on the borders, where he is said to be engaged in drug and other trafficking.[28]
Mohammed Zaman The Asia Times reported, on December 4, 2001, that Haji Abdul Qadeer, Haji Mohammed Zaman and Hazrat Ali collaborated to restore the Afridi drug network.[29]
Sher Mohammed Akhundzada Radio Free Europe quotes Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid[30]
"Sher Mohammad Akhonzada, the former governor of Helmand, has already hired 500 fighters. Mr. Akhonzada was thrown out from the governorship of Helmand on the demand of the British government before [British troops] went down into Helmand because of his involvement with the drugs, because of his involvement with the Taliban, and [because of] his very unsavory reputation"

Samad Khan Nephew of Karim Lala the Head of Pashtun Mafia in India[31]).
Bashar Noorzai "The Founder of drug smuggling network Noorzai Organization" :[32]:
Karim Lala "Born in the Kunar province in Afghanistan is widely known to be the founder and pioneer of the Indian mafia[33]
Rahim Khan Karmim Lala younger brother ; prominent member of the Pashtun Mafia in India[34])
Pir Sayed Gailani Ayub Afridi's partner in Heroin Smuggling[35]
Gulbeddin Hekmatyar Afghan Warlord and founder of Hizb-i Islam known to be in Afridi's Drug smuggling coalition [35]
Gul Aghan Sherzai Governor of Kandahar and a major drugs smuggler[32]:
Haji Ayub Zakhakhel One of Pakisan's biggest drug barons
Muzaffar Khan Afridi Member of the Afridi Organization ; transported hundreds of kilograms of heroin and hashish in the U.S[36])
Alamdar Khan Afridi Member of the Afridi Organization ; transported hundreds of kilograms of heroin and hashish in the U.S[37])
Iqbal Beg Prominent Head of the Afridi Organization[15]
Anwar Khattack Prominent Head of the Afridi Organization[15]
Alman Shah Prominent Head of the Afridi Organization[15]
Iqbal Shah Prominent Head of the Afridi Organization[15]


[edit] Prominent Organizations
Baz Mohammad Organization
Noorzai Organization
Afridi Organization
Kukikhel Organization
Notezai Organization

[edit] Prominent Pashtun Mafia Locations
Prominent locations of the Pashtun Mafia organized crime Location Notes
Darra Adam Khel Area devoted entirely to the production of ordnance., A wide variety of firearms are produced in the town, from anti-aircraft guns to pen-guns.[12]
Dubai Serves as a key financial hub for transactions conducted outside of Afghanistan & Pakistan
Waziristan
Mumbai
Helmand
Nangarhar
Jamrud
Bara
Argu It is the biggest heroin-processing district in north-eastern Afghanistan, home to at least 14 laboratories run by Pashtun Mafia traders from the violent tribal borderlands near Pakistan, where the Taliban are waging an insurgency against US troops which is fuelled by drug money.Much of the heroin also still goes south to Helmand, from where the Pashtun smuggling mafia hail. [38]
Sohrab Goth Area on the outskirts of Karachi known as being a storage and distribution center of drugs and weapons for the Pashtun Mafia in Karachi [39][40]
KarKhano Market Established in 1985 has 4,500 shops, owned by both Pakistani and Afghan Pashtun Traders. This market gets a huge amount of contraband from the smugglers from the notorious Pashtun Mafia. The Market sells anything from electronics to clothing. The recent high price of oil has seen a discount price of smuggled petrol in the market.[41]


[edit] See also

[rtaylor]

Pakistani officials say an explosion has destroyed at least one house near the Afghan border, killing several suspected foreign militants.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials say informers in the area told them drone aircraft were seen near Gurwak village in the North Waziristan region just before the blast on Friday and that they believed the aircraft had fired missiles.

The officials say five suspected foreign militants were killed and several others injured.

[ElDorado]

The US govt and foreign intelligence have their hands all over the AFghan heroin trade. Their local militia allies run the trade outside the country and the Pakistani and Russian intelligence/mafia take over