Narco-terrorism and money laundering are inter-related. In the process of converting profits collected from criminal activities into licit-looking financial power, the narco-terrorists disrupt the society’s economic system. Since the sums involved exceed the annual gross national products of the majority of countries, colossal volumes of such dimensions possess the capacity of threatening democratic forms of governments, shake weak economies and destabilize global markets. While at times even stolen art objects are traded as part of drug deals, some accumulated capital is channeled into luxurious business, and portions of it pour into expensive weapons, bringing more bloodshed, more drugs, and more power.

No single country can win a war on drugs on its own. There has to be regional and global efforts. In the South Asian context, the SAARC countries should pool their resources by creating a joint anti-narcotics task force to check the flow of illegal produce and extradite traffickers. The task force, made up representatives from all member states, must enjoy the powers to challenge the authority of the big fish. A treaty on extradition of smugglers may also help in setting up a regional anti-narcotics regime. No regional country should be regarded as a safe haven for drug traffickers. Pakistan and India especially should accord top priority to “drug education”.

There have been international strategies to combat narco-terrorism.[3] The United Nations led multilateral initiatives including treaties, new organizational structures and congresses. To assert the haphazard growth of the control system, the Convention of Narcotic Drugs (1961), amended by the  1972 Protocol, aimed to consolidate most of the earlier international instruments. Up to 1971, only narcotic drugs were subject to control, but growing concern over the harmful dependency effects of amphetamine- type drugs, sedative-hypnotic agents, hallucinogens, and other stimulants, led to the adoption of  the Convention on Psychotropic Substances (1971). While the General Assembly Declaration on the Control of Drug Trafficking and Drug Abuse (1984) stated that its eradication was the responsibility of all states, the international conference in Vienna (1987), attended by the representatives of 138 states, about half of whom were ministers of cabinet rank, prepared the ground for a comprehensive convention.

Among a series of treaties dealing directly with narcotics, the United nations Conventions against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (19 December 1988) obliges, among other provisions, the extradition of drug traffickers. During the same year (1990) that the 1988 Convention entered into force, the General Assembly adopted a Global Programme of Action to achieve the goal of an international society free of illicit drugs. A number of bodies have been created in the U.N. organizational structure to deal with the drugs control regime.[4] There have been nine congresses, held once every five years since 1955. The United Nations established (1991) the International Drug Control Program, which coordinates all  U.N. Decade against Drug Abuse (1991-2000).[5] Some regional organizations are also committed to the struggle against narco-terrorism. The United Nations maintains working relationships with a number of interregional, intergovernmental and international organizations are also, not part of the U.N. family of organizations, but actively involved in drug control. The customs authorities of states belonging to the Customs Cooperation Council (CCC) work to harmonize customs laws and regulations, and advocate increased enforcement coordination. “Interpol” is the only international body, on the other hand, which can be requested to apprehend suspected criminals. Dozens of bilateral treaties that Britain signed, related to the confiscation of the assets of the narco-terrorists, may be model for some other states to echo and repeat.