Live From Afghanistan

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Bumper crop of poppies...

U.N. Warns Of Opium, Coca Glut
June 26, 2008 - Cultivation Of The Raw Materials Used To Make Heroin And Cocaine Has Exploded, The U.N. Says

More than ever before, authorities waging the global war on drugs are up against real insurgents. Worldwide, illicit cultivation of opium and coca - the raw materials for heroin and cocaine - is rising as militants in Afghanistan, Colombia and Myanmar consolidate their control of key drug-producing areas, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime warns in a new report.

"The explosion of narcotics in those areas is explained by their presence and the protection they offer," agency chief Antonio Maria Costa told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "I believe that slowly these people, although politically motivated at the beginning, are becoming a kind of organized crime," he said. "Money tends to stick to fingers, and a big lump of money becomes very problematic."

In its World Drug Report 2008 being released Thursday, Costa's office calls the glut of opium and coca "a very recent surge" and draws a direct link to Taliban militants in Afghanistan, armed revolutionaries in Colombia and several ethnic insurgency groups in Myanmar. Afghanistan had a record opium poppy harvest in 2007, nearly doubling worldwide illegal opium production. U.N. experts say 80 percent of the poppy was grown in five southern provinces where Taliban fighters profit from drugs.

"In the southern areas controlled by the Taliban, counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency must be fought together," Costa said. Officials say the expanding role of insurgents in the global narcotics trade is especially worrisome because their drug profits are used to bribe police and government authorities and to help finance terrorists.

More U.N. Warns Of Opium, Coca Glut, Cultivation Of The Raw Materials Used To Make Heroin And Cocaine Has Exploded, The U.N. Says - CBS News

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Opium confiscated in Afghanistan...

1.4 tonnes of opium seized
July 05, 2008 - AFGHAN security forces seized 1.4 tonnes of opium in western Afghanistan near the border with Iran, authorities said.

Seven men were detained in connection with Thursday's haul in Herat province, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Afghanistan is the world's top opium producer and last year produced 8200 tonnes of the substance, or 92 per cent of global production.

About 60 per cent of the opium leaves the country in the form of heroin, according to UN figures.
Islamic Taliban insurgents earn millions of dollars every year from the trade, officials say.

1.4 tonnes of opium seized | NEWS.com.au

See also:

Poppy trap
Saturday, 5 July 2008 - The Afghan farmers caught in a struggle for survival

Much of Afghanistan's Helmand Province is dependent on the poppy harvest - which locks ordinary people into a criminal economy and ends up funding Taleban insurgents, corrupt officials and drug traffickers. "The Holy Koran hated our fields this year," was how one farmer from Helmand described just how bad the opium poppy harvest had been.

In May, farmers scraping the bulbous seed heads of their poppy plants, found low quantities of the milky white liquid that is opium dribbling out. Bad weather, frosts and poor rains, meant the yield was way down. The price of opium has also fallen, after years of bumper harvests flooding the market.

Taleban tax

After paying household and farming expenses, the farmer said, he had hardly broken even, especially after everyone else took their share, the labourers who helped with the harvest and the mullah who, in rural Afghanistan, is supported collectively by the congregation.

More BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Farmers caught in the poppy trade

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UN gettin' fed up with Afghan corruption...

U.N. Urges To Revamp Foreign Aid Spending, Crackdown On Corruption In Afghan
July 6, 2008 - The United Nations special representative to Afghanistan will present a plan to urge foreign aid spending by donor nations in the country be revamped to avoid wasting money.

Reports have speculated that millions of dollars may have been wasted as foreign aid poured into the country as Afghanistan struggles to maintain democratic rule and fight Taleban insurgents.

Kai Eide alleges that the aid money was spent more in the home countries that were sending the aid, rather than spending the money in Afghanistan. He suggests that foreign aid money be channeled through the Afghan government in a way to curb corruption.

The reports said around 80 countries pledged to shell out about $22 billion for rebuilding Afghanistan's infrastructure and to create jobs for people. However, millions of dollars of development money has instead been wasted in the seven years since the fall of the Taleban after the U.S.-led coalition invaded the country.

U.N. Urges To Revamp Foreign Aid Spending, Crackdown On Corruption In Afghan | AHN | July 7, 2008

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Afghan terrorists payload gets intercepted...

U.S. Navy: 30 tons of drugs seized in gulf
Tues., July. 15, 2008 - Seizures cut off possible funds to Afghan insurgents, officials say

Coalition warships seized 30 tons of narcotics over the past five months on Persian Gulf patrols, cutting off possible funds for insurgents in Afghanistan, the U.S. Navy said in a statement Tuesday. The majority of the busts were carried out by the British navy. Drugs seized included hashish, opiates, cocaine and amphetamines, the statement said, without giving a specific breakdown.

Commodore Keith Winstanley, the British navy's commander in the Middle East, said illegal drugs are "one of the gravest threats to the long-term security of Afghanistan and a vital source of funding for the Taliban warlords." Winstanley said the seizure of the drugs dealt "a significant blow to the illegal trade."

Afghanistan is the world's biggest opium producer. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said last month that the country also appears to have become the world's top grower of cannabis, overtaking Morocco. The resin from cannabis is molded to create hash. UNODC estimates that some 170,000 acres of cannabis was grown in Afghanistan last year, up from 120,000 acres in 2006.

U.S. Navy: 30 tons of drugs seized in gulf - Mideast/N. Africa - MSNBC.com