WASHINGTON D.C. - A U.S. drug official said on Friday that the terrorist organization PKK was involved in drug trafficking.
Michael Braun, the assistant administrator and chief of operations of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said that PKK was involved in drug trafficking, but also other international organized crime.
Therefore, it could be defined as a hybrid organization, Braun said in a special policy forum at the Washington Institute on "drug trafficking and Middle Eastern terrorist groups: a growing nexus?".
Braun said that the best thing to fight against terrorist organizations like PKK and al-Qaida was to demolish the walls and cooperate.
The U.S. drug official said that U.S. President George Bush openly defined PKK as a terrorist network a few months ago, and said that the United States was working with Turkey and other countries in the region to eradicate the terrorist organization PKK.
Braun, appointed as the DEA`s chief of operations in February 2005, leads the drug-enforcement operations of the agency`s 227 domestic and 87 foreign offices.
DEA is a United States Department of Justice law enforcement agency tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the U.S.
Beginning in December 2003, he headed the Office of Special Intelligence and, later, the entire Intelligence Division. Previously, in June 2003, he was detailed to the Defense Department to serve on special assignment with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, as chief of staff for the interim Ministry of Interior.
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