Drug Trafficking Major Source of ISIL Income – Russian Drug Control Head

The Islamic State militant group has turned drug smuggling into its principal source of earnings, head of the Russian Drug Control Service Victor Ivanov said on Tuesday.

DUSHANBE (Sputnik) — Dushanbe, the capital of Central Asia's Tajikistan, is hosting a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member nations' drug control authorities.

"We have identified channels of drug supply from Africa to Iraq and further to Europe. This proves that financial funding for the Islamic State comes from drug trafficking," Ivanov said.

CSTO members, comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia, have seized over 10 tons of drugs in the past ten years.