7. Haji Lal Jan Ishaqza – King Of The Poppy Trade
In 2014, U.S. officials congratulated themselves on finally bringing Haji Lal Jan Ishaqza, a key figure in Afghanistan’s illegal drug trade, to justice. It’s something they were able to do in cooperation with Afghani authorities. Any positive feelings on the conviction evaporated, however, when he was able to bribe his way out of prison later that same year.
The price was said to have reached as high as $14 million USD and was divided among several layers of the judicial system. It’s a common happening in Afghanistan, although the price was still relatively high. Ishaqza began plying his trade with opium paste in the 1980s. By the 1990s, he was building his own labs to turn the paste into heroin. He set up shop in Kandahar after the Taliban was driven out in 2001, and found an ally in Ahmed Wali Karzai, half-brother to then Afghani President Hamid Karzai.
He lived under that protection until Ahmed Karzai was killed in 2011. President Obama added his name to a public list of international drug kingpins in 2012. Haji was arrested after a shootout with authorities the same year and eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison. Since his prison buyout, his current whereabouts are not known.
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