Officials puzzle over millions of dollars leaving Afghanistan by plane for Dubai - washingtonpost

KABUL -- A blizzard of bank notes is flying out of Afghanistan -- often in full view of customs officers at the Kabul airport -- as part of a cash exodus that is confounding U.S. officials and raising concerns about the money's origin.

The cash, estimated to total well over $1 billion a year, flows mostly to the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, where many wealthy Afghans now park their families and funds, according to U.S. and Afghan officials. So long as departing cash is declared at the airport here, its transfer is legal.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, for its part, is trying to figure out whether some of the money comes from Afghanistan's thriving opium trade. And officials in neighboring Pakistan think that at least some of the cash leaving Kabul has been smuggled overland from Pakistan.

"All this money magically appears from nowhere," said a U.S. official who monitors Afghanistan's growing role as a hub for cash transfers to Dubai, which has six flights a day to and from Kabul. ..... Puzzle over Afghan cash exodus
واشنگتن پست: میلیون ها دالریکه از افغانستان په دبی انتقال میشود

Officials puzzle over millions of dollars leaving Afghanistan
Banker feeds Afghan crony capitalism : - Andrew Higgins
Dubai real estate deals for Afghans connected to Karzai