Spy: Stolen U.S. dollars exit Afghan airport controlled by Karzai brother

Afghan intelligence service reports in the hands of NATO-led forces say that the major exit point for stolen American dollars is through the airport in Kandahar, controlled by President Hamid Karzai’s brother.

According to a Washington Post report on Friday, U.S. and Afghan authorities, “alarmed by an exodus of money from Afghanistan … are trying to constrict a flow of cash through the country’s main airport,” in Kabul. The airport, according to the report, is “believed to be a major conduit for drug proceeds and diverted foreign aid.”

But a former CIA official who works with Afghanistan’s spy service said the airport at Kandahar dwarfs Kabul as an exit point for millions of dollars in pilfered U.S. aid money and drug proceeds. The president’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, president of the provincial council in Kandahar, has been repeatedly accused of controlling the opium trade there.

“The direct Ariana flight from Kandahar to Dubai in its cargo hold carries many bales of U.S. dollars wrapped in burlap,” said the former CIA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity so he could speak freely. “No hand carry. This is AWK’s preferred route.”

“On one day in July,” he added, “one of our guys saw 13 bales of cash being unloaded in Dubai from this flight.”

Karzai, sometimes called “the King of Kandahar,” has denied his involvement in the drug trade, most recently in an interview Thursday with CBS News.

From Jeff Stein in the Post