AP: Hundreds of men, strung out on heroin, opium and meth, were strewn over the hillside overlooking Kabul, some in tents, some lying in the dirt. Dogs skulked around because they sometimes give them drugs, and there were bodies of overdosed dogs amid the garbage. Men here as well slip, quiet and alone, across the
AP: During the years-long Taliban insurgency, the movement reportedly made millions of dollars taxing farmers and middlemen to move their drugs outside Afghanistan. Senior officials of the U.S.-backed government also reportedly made millions on the flourishing drug trade. Today, Afghanistan’s opium output is greater than all other opium-producing countries combined. Click here to read more
8am: Vladimir Kulishov, Russian First Deputy Chief of the Federal Security Service (FSB), has said that the volume of drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Central Asian countries has doubled since 2021, specifically, after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. According to Mr. Kulishov, last year, 3,500 tons of narcotics were seized in the Republic of
NYT: The multibillion-dollar trade has survived previous bans. Now, the Taliban are going after solar-powered water pumps to try to dry up poppy crops in the middle of a national economic crisis. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Washington Post reported that Afghanistan’s “fastest-growing drug industry operates from desert outposts in plain view.” The Islamic Emirate has yet to comment in reaction to the report. The report said that the meth industry is “growing at breakneck speed, stoking fears among Western experts and officials that, under the Taliban, Afghanistan could
8am: Local sources say the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan has boosted opium markets and has encouraged poppy farmers to increase production and turn more lands into poppy cultivation fields. Click here to read more (external link).
The Independent (UK): Apart from the potentially ruinous domestic impact, the collapse of Afghanistan’s heroin trade may also usher in a new era of drug trafficking in Europe and the UK, where most Afghan-sourced heroin is consumed. Click here to read more (external link).
RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi April 14, 2022 Wali Jan, a farmer in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, is expected to soon harvest poppies from his half-hectare farm. Standing in his blooming poppy field in Garni, an impoverished village on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Tarin Kowt, Jan is upset by the Taliban’s decision this
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi April 4, 2022 One of the Taliban’s first moves upon seizing power in Afghanistan was to take extreme measures to tackle the country’s drug epidemic. To that end, thousands of addicts have been rounded up, beaten, and marched off to prison, where they have been forced to go cold turkey among hardened
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty April 3, 2022 Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government has banned the cultivation of poppies, which are used to produce opium and other drugs. The April 3 order by the de facto authorities said poppy crops would be burned and farmers would face punishments under Shari’a law. The decree was read out to a