"Heroin is moved through Balkan NATO states, Trump is right"

Trump is right on NATO - the military alliance is obsolete, Adriatic Institute President Natasha Srdoc writes in the Huffington Post.

SOURCE: TANJUG FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2017


This is true because of its outdated mission, corruption, failure in defense spending, and the lack of a rule of law within many members, and it allows transnational crime networks to flourish, she claims.

Looking at the current state of NATO, in the context of US President Donald Trump's controversial statements about the obsolescence of the military alliance, Srdoc writes that "corrupt Eastern European politicians are using NATO accession and membership to buy legitimacy":

"For example, the newest prospective member, Montenegro, is a center for transnational organized crime but has used ill-gotten gains to throw parties for visiting Americans. As World reported, John McCain had a 70th birthday party there; Madonna and Bill Clinton received gargantuan payments for flattering elite Montenegrins with a concert and a speech, respectively; and guests from The Heritage Foundation, the Atlas Network, the Cato Institute, and the Mont Pelerin Society have also been feted in Montenegro."

The author also says that NATO members Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Croatia lie on the Balkan Route "with unsecured borders, easily crossed by terrorists."

"Corruption is rampant. Organized crime coexists in a symbiotic relationship with political corruption. Reports have shown that radical Islamists are using the Balkan Route for recruiting, getting their weapons supply and funding. More than one million migrants came through the Balkan Route into Europe within the last 18 months, including terrorists," Srdoc writes.

"The Balkan Route’s heroin, arms, human and organ trafficking merges with cocaine trafficking coming from Latin America. Reports indicate that Balkan heroin trafficking brings in more than 28 billion dollars in proceeds annually, financing Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and ISIS. The Balkan Route originates in Afghanistan, where 75 percent of the world opium is produced, and trafficked via Iran, Turkey, and the Balkan NATO countries into Western Europe and beyond," according to the article.