PKK earns $1.7 billion in drug trade: Ministry report

A narcoterrorism report prepared by Turkey’s Interior Ministry suggests that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) earns nearly $1.7 billion each year through its involvement in the production and trading of cannabis, in addition to drug smuggling, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

The PKK earns some 500 million Turkish Liras (around $170 million) per year via the production and trading of cannabis, said the report, which sheds light on narcoterrorism operations, adding that $1.5 billion was raised annually through drug smuggling.

Drug smuggling constitutes a major component of the financing of militant organizations including the PKK, the report stressed, highlighting that 381 narcotic operations involving terror groups were conducted between 1984 and 2015.

A total 1,283 suspects were apprehended in the operations while six drug manufacturing facilities were discovered.

Moreover, a total 5,543 kilograms of heroin, 41,149 kilograms of marijuana, 710 kilograms of cocaine, 21 kilograms of opium and over 17 million cannabis plants were seized in operations.

The reports also cited international security literature and said the PKK was one of the four militant organizations across the world which earned most of its income from drug smuggling. The other three organizations were named as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Islamist Movement of Uzbekistan.

According to the report, the PKK produces heroin in its camps in northern Iraq while it collects money from villages in Iran and Iraq for each kilogram of heroin they produce.

The ministry also alleges that the PKK transports drugs produced in northern Iraq to Europe, where members of the militant organization play a role in the distribution of the drugs.