LawFuel.com – Law Announcements Daily – MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, and MICHELE M. LEONHART, Acting
Administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement
Administration (“DEA”), announced today the arrest of HAJI JUMA
KHAN, a/k/a “Abdullah,” a/k/a “Haji Juma Khan Mohammadhasni,” an
Afghan drug trafficker charged with conspiracy to distribute
narcotics with intent to support a terrorist organization. KHAN
is among the first defendants to be prosecuted under the 2006
federal narco-terrorism statute. According to the Indictment
unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:
Since at least 1999, KHAN led an international opium,
morphine and heroin trafficking organization (the “Khan
Organization”) based principally in the Helmand and Kandahar
provinces of southern Afghanistan. The Khan Organization
arranged to sell morphine base, an opium derivative that can be
processed into heroin, in quantities as large as 40 tons – enough
to supply the entire United States heroin market for more than
two years. According to the Indictment, the Khan Organization
also operated labs in Afghanistan that produced refined heroin
and sold the drug in quantities of as much as 100 kilograms, or
220 pounds, and more.
KHAN has been closely aligned with the Taliban, which
was designated by the President of the United States as a
Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group in 2002. The
Taliban’s totalitarian government controlled Afghanistan from the
mid-1990s until 2001, when it was removed from power by the
United States and allied military forces. Since the United
States’ military intervention, the Taliban has operated an
insurgency aimed at re-establishing its control of Afghanistan
and forcibly expelling the United States and its allies through
terrorist tactics such as suicide bombings, improvised explosive
devices, shootings and kidnappings, which target American
soldiers, Afghan political leaders, security contractors and
civilians. The Taliban has publicly claimed credit for terrorist
attacks, including a January 14, 2008 attack on civilians and
employees at the Serena Hotel in Kabul, in which an American
citizen was murdered.
The Taliban’s terrorist insurgency has been funded in
part by drug traffickers who provide financing to the Taliban in
exchange for protection for their drug routes, production labs,
and opium poppy fields. KHAN has supported the Taliban’s efforts
to forcibly remove the United States and its allies from
Afghanistan by providing financial support in the form of drug
proceeds.
Mr. GARCIA said: “The arrest of HAJI JUMA KHAN is
another significant step in the continuing effort to combat
terrorism by stopping the flow of narcotics proceeds that help
fund the Taliban and other terrorist organizations.”
“Proceeds from HAJI JUMA KHAN’s global drug trafficking
organization funded the terrorist activities of the Taliban,”
said DEA Acting Administrator MICHELE M. LEONHART. “His arrest
disrupts a significant line of credit to the Taliban and will
shake the foundation of his drug network that has moved massive
quantities of heroin to worldwide drug markets.”
Mr. GARCIA praised the investigative work of the DEA,
with the assistance of the British Serious Organised Crime
Agency, and thanked the Turkish National Police and the Turkish
Jandarma for their role in the case. He also thanked United
States and international INTERPOL authorities for their support.
KHAN will be presented this afternoon before United
States Magistrate Judge RONALD L. ELLIS for initial appearance
and arraignment. United States District Judge NAOMI REICE
BUCHWALD will preside over future proceedings in this case; a
conference is scheduled before Judge BUCHWALD for October 28,
2008, at 2:30 p.m.
If convicted, KHAN, 54, faces a maximum sentence of
life and a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s
International Narcotics Trafficking Unit. Assistant United
States Attorneys MARSHALL A. CAMP and EUGENE INGOGLIA are in
charge of the prosecution.
The charge contained in the Indictment is merely an
accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and
until proven guilty.
08-272 ###
