Russia won the rights to host the 2014 Olympics with the help of one of the world’s biggest heroin traffickers, says former British ambassador to Uzbekistan

Gafur Rakhimov was publicly thanked for help by Sochi Olympic bid chief

Uzbek businessman said to have been key to securing vital Asian votes



But US officials believe he is a mafia boss and international heroin kingpin



Now ex-British ambassador to Uzbekistan calls him a major drug trafficker



Craig Murray has referred to Rakhimov as 'a very dangerous gangster'



Russia won the right to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi with the help of one of the world’s biggest heroin traffickers, it has been claimed.

After the International Olympic Committee voted to award the games to Sochi in 2007, the head of the Russian bid publicly thanked Uzbek businessman Gafur Rakhimov for securing the votes of Asian countries ‘without which…it would have been hard for Sochi to count on the victory’.

But according to US officials, Rakhimov is a mafia boss and heroin kingpin who is currently facing criminal charges in Uzbekistan.

Accusations: Gafur Rakhimov was publicly thanked for his help in securing the Sochi Games for Russia. He has now been accused of being a 'very dangerous gangster' and one of the world's biggest heroin traffickers

'[Rakhimov] is one of the four or five most important people in the heroin trade in the world,' Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, told ABC News.

'He’s absolutely a very major and very dangerous gangster.'



Russian president Vladimir Putin staked his international reputation on winning the winter games for Sochi despite concerns that the Black Sea resort sits in a region that is a hotbed of both corruption and terrorism.

Rakhimov, a former boxer, admitted that he helped the Russian bid through his Central Asian contacts.

'He convinced them because of his good relations with these people. He has great influence,' said a spokesman for the alleged gangster.

The spokesman denied claims that Rakhimov and his cronies have boasted that 'bags of cash' were used to secure the Olympic votes. 'It was not necessary,' he told ABC.

Rakhimov is a leading member of an organised crime syndicate that specialises in exporting heroin from central Asia to Europe, including the UK.

He was banned from attending the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney but he still serves as a vice president of the Olympic Council of Asia, a group of countries that are members of the IOC.

After the vote to award the games to Sochi, the head of the Russian bid publicly thanked Uzbek businessman Gafur Rakhimov for securing the votes of Asian countries

Critics say Putin is ignoring or covering up clear evidence of corruption relating to the Games. The Russian president has staked his international reputation on Sochi

In 2012, the US Treasury put financial sanctions on him and tried to freeze his bank accounts across the world. It described Rakhimov as key member of a Russian-Asian crime network called the Brothers’ Circle.

The Treasury said in a statement that he operated ‘major international drug syndicates involving the trafficking of heroin'.

According to a Russian investigative journalist, Rakhimov has strong ties to some Russian officials.

Putin has strenuously denied there was any corruption involved in Sochi beating more obvious candidates in Austria and South Korea to win the Winter Games.

The International Olympic Committee has not commented on Rakhimov but said in a statement: 'The IOC has a strong, transparent, tried-and-tested bidding process.'

The allegations are merely the latest in a string of international concerns that have been raised about the Sochi games, which have been described as the most expensive and most corrupt ever.

Valery Morozov said tens of billions of dollars supposedly spent on Sochi Olympic projects, including the stadium (pictured), ended up in the pockets of well-connected Russian officials

A senior US intelligence official this week told the Senate Intelligence Committee there has been an increase in reports of security threats against the games.

And a Russian businessman now sheltering in the UK said he is a 'marked man' after publicly claiming government officials demanded payoffs in return for Olympics construction contracts in Sochi.

Valery Morozov said he was told he would be 'drowned in blood' in revenge for speaking out.

According to Boris Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister and Putin opponent, tens of billions of dollars supposedly spent on Sochi Olympic projects has ended up in the pockets of well-connected Russian officials.

He included the Olympic stadium, which he said cost three times as much as any stadium in the world, and a £5.5 billion project to build a 30-mile highway between Sochi and the skiing hills above the city.