National Review: The good news is that Afghanistan has developed a new industry that gives it something valuable to export other than heroin. The bad news is that it is methamphetamine. Of course, the Taliban bosses are up to their turbans in the meth trade, imposing a “tax” on drug producers that puts millions and
BBC News: Heroin has long been a problem in Kabul but now many are turning to meth, a cheaper but equally dangerous drug. A new report released on Tuesday warns that Afghanistan is becoming a significant global producer of methamphetamine. The country’s opium poppy fields are already the source of the majority of the world’s
There are an estimated 300,000 drug addicts in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, and authorities say that number is rising. The city is unable to help them all, as VOA’s Azizullah Popal reports from Kandahar. Bezhan Hamdard narrates.
By Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 16, 2020 The Taliban’s burgeoning financial might could make the militant group immune to pressure from the international community as it negotiates a role in postwar Afghanistan, according to a confidential report commissioned by NATO and obtained by RFE/RL. The Taliban “has achieved, or is close to achieving,
VOA News: Afghan government said Saturday that it has taken necessary measures to curb the use of drugs in the police forces amid a newly published report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction saying that half of the police forces in the southern provinces used drugs.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 20, 2020 Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says that “all barriers and excuses have been removed” ahead of expected peace talks between the government in Kabul and the Taliban militants. In a televised message to Afghan security forces on August 20, Ghani said his government had “met all conditions for a
1TV: The United States is considering to release Bashir Noorzai, an Afghan heroin kingpin, who is imprisoned since 2005, it has been reported. Noorzai was given a life sentence in 2009 after being convicted of conspiring to import heroin into the US and conspiring to distribute it. Click here to read more (external link).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: In Afghanistan’s Badakhshan Province, more children are working in the poppy fields and selling opium after schools were shut because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
CoinDesk: Blockchain startup Fantom has been given the green light to start tracking medicinal drugs in Afghanistan to help stem the country’s counterfeiting problem. After a signing ceremony with the Afghan Ministry of Health and several pharmaceutical distributors last month, the startup has unveiled details of its Smart Medicine pilot project. The project aims to
1TV: A top Russian diplomat has accused US intelligence officers of involvement in trafficking of drug from Afghanistan. “Those wonderful US intelligence officers, who accuse us of different things, are involved in drug trafficking. Their planes from Kandahar, from Bagram [airfield near Kabul] are flying wherever they want to – to Germany, to Romania –