Afghan Biographies

Ishaqzai, Lal Jan Haji


Name Ishaqzai, Lal Jan Haji
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth 1950
Function/Grade Drugdealer
History and Biodata

3. Biodata:

Haji Lal Jan Ishaqzai (a.k.a. ISHAKZAI, Haji Lal Jan; a.k.a. ISHAQZAI, Haji Lal Jan Muslim; a.k.a. ISHAQZAI, Hajji Lal Jan) was born 1950 in Sangin District, Helmand Province. He is an infamous Drug Kingpin. He is among those said to have been freed from a Kabul prison in exchange for money. He was reportedly freed at a cost of roughly 14 million USD, dispersed among different officials, and right under the nose of the Afghan and U.S. governments. He was arrested in 2012 and was transferred to Pul Charkhi prison in Kabul. The event was touted as a major victory for counter narcotics efforts. In 2011, Ishaqzai was designated a drug kingpin by President Obama, a procedure that imposes financial sanctions on major drug lords. The Afghans arrested him in 2012 and convicted him in a special drug court in Kabul in 2013. He was serving a 20-year sentence for drug trafficking.
 

According to sources close to matter, Ishaqzai was transferred to Kandahar prison, on the order of a mid-level judge, and from there he escaped across the border to Pakistan where he is thought to reside in the city of Quetta. Although an investigation has been launched and a number of officials involved in the incident arrested, it is doubtful Ishaqzai will be re-apprehended now that he has left Afghan jurisdiction. He was arrested in 2012 and was transferred to Pul Charkhi prison in Kabul. The event was touted as a major victory for counter narcotics efforts. According to sources close to matter, Ishaqzai was then transferred to Kandahar prison, on the order of a mid-level judge, and from there he escaped across the border to Pakistan where he is thought to reside in the city of Quetta. Although an investigation has been launched and a number of officials involved in the incident arrested, it is doubtful Ishaqzai will be re-apprehended now that he has left Afghan jurisdiction. Ishaqzai, according to an Afghan counternarcotics official, the kingpin is thought to have bribed a judge for two million USD to be transferred from Kabul to Kandahar.

However, there remains suspicion that higher-level authorities, such as the Supreme Court, could have been involved in the scheme. Ishaqzai had close connections with relatives of the previous president, Hamid Karzai, and was also close to the Taliban, narcotics investigators said. His arrest became possible only after Karzai’s powerful half brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was assassinated in 2011 in Kandahar. Karzai ran Kandahar at that time, and many Western officials expressed concern about his close relations with drug traffickers.

 

Last Modified 2015-01-03
Established 2015-01-03