Dawood Ibrahim, a prominent drug dealer, is behind the recent attack on hotels in the Indian city of Mumbai, which makes it a good example of how illegal drug schemes are used to finance terrorism, Russian Federal Drug Control Service chief Viktor Ivanov said.

"Certain information indicates that Dawood Ibrahim, a well-known drug dealer in the region, provided the attackers with his logistics network," Ivanov said in an interview to be published in the Wednesday issue of Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

The attack on Mumbai is "a vivid example of how a drug network could be used to support terrorism."

"The Afghan drug producers receive an income amounting to about $4 billion, and the international drug mafia sells this heroin around the world at over $100 billion, by the most conservative estimate," Ivanov said.

"The super incomes derived this way lead not only to genocide of nations. They have become a major source for financing organized crime and terrorist networks destabilizing political systems, including in Central Asia and the Caucasus," he said.

"Without defeating the drug threat from Afghanistan, terrorism cannot be overpowered in Russia, either," Ivanov said.