The Nexus of Drug Trafficking and Hawala in Afghanistan

During recent years, informal money service providers, or hawaladars, have gained an enhanced role as an important informal institution and key economic agents in Afghanistan. The hawala system, handling both financial transfers and currency exchange, was important in Afghanistan even before the war. But during the long period of conflict, and especially under the Taliban regime, the hawala markets fully replaced the formal banking system, providing people with the only facility to transfer money into and out of the country. These markets became host to a complex interplay of actors from the benign through to the ethically questionable and patently criminal.