Tax Havens (VDS etc.) DRUG TRAFFIC AND WHO CONTROL THEM

Needless to highlight that South West Asia especially India, Pakistan and Afghanistan offer vast opportunity for money laundering. It is a known fact that the real estate boom in India during the 1980s and early 1990s was because of unprecedented investment in property business by Daud Ibrahim (currently in Pakistan) and his associates. Similar was the case of the entertainment industry in Mumbai, Daud Ibrahim & Co. emerged as the real financier for films and the music industry during this time. His gang dominated the money market for ten years by funding such business enterprises in Mumbai. The unholy alliance of drug smugglers, criminals, builders, film producers and petty business enterprises came to light only after the Bombay Blasts in 1993. Until then no one that knew that illicit drug proceeds had already converted into legitimate business and government could do nothing about it as there was no document or paper, a prerequisite for legal action against the crime committed.

CIA covert weapons shipments are sent by the Pakistani army and the ISI to rebel camps in the North West Frontier province near the Afghanistan border. The governor of the province is Lieutenant General Fazle Haq, who author Alfred McCoy calls Pakistani President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq’s “closest confidant and the de facto overlord of the mujahideen guerrillas.” Haq allows hundreds of heroin refineries to set up in his province. Beginning around 1982, Pakistani army trucks carrying CIA weapons from Karachi often pick up heroin in Haq’s province and return loaded with heroin. They are protected from police search by ISI papers. [McCoy, 2003, pp. 477] By 1982, Haq is listed with Interpol as an international drug trafficker. But Haq also becomes known as a CIA asset. Despite his worsening reputation, visiting US politicians such as CIA Director William Casey and Vice President George H. W. Bush continue to meet with him when they visit Pakistan. Haq then moves his heroin money through the criminal Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). A highly placed US official will later say that Haq “was our man… everybody knew that Haq was also running the drug trade” and that “BCCI was completely involved.” [Scott, 2007, pp. 73-75] Both European and Pakistani police complain that investigations of heroin trafficking in the province are “aborted at the highest level.” [McCoy, 2003, pp. 477] In 1989, shortly after Benazir Bhutto takes over as the new ruler of Pakistan, Pakistani police arrest Haq and charge him with murder. He is considered a multi-billionaire by this time. But Haq will be gunned down and killed in 1991, apparently before he is tried. [McCoy, 2003, pp. 483] Even President Zia is implied in the drug trade. In 1985, a Norwegian government investigation will lead to the arrest of a Pakistani drug dealer who also is President Zia’s personal finance manager. When arrested, his briefcase contains Zia’s personal banking records. The manager will be sentenced to a long prison term. [McCoy, 2003, pp. 481-482]

When Pakistani police picked up Hamid Hasnain, V.P. of govt's Habib bank, they found in his briefcase the personal records of president Zia. Blatant official corruption continued until General Zia's death in an air crash. Typical of misinformation that blocked any U.S. action against Pakistan's heroin trade, the State Department's semi-annual narcotics review in September called General Zia a strong supporter of anti-narcotics activities in Pakistan.