8am: Taliban officials have called the release of Haji Bashir Ahmad Noorzai, known as Haji Bashar, as a sign of American goodwill and a “new chapter in the relations” between the Taliban and the United States. Haji Bashar is known in the media and political circles as the godfather of Afghanistan’s drug mafia. It is
Ayaz Gul VOA News September 19, 2022 ISLAMABAD — The Taliban Monday freed Mark Frerichs, the only American hostage remaining in Afghanistan, in exchange for a Taliban drug lord, Bashir Noorzai, who was serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison. Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told reporters in Kabul the prisoner swap between his
Akmal Dawi VOA News September 9, 2022 Unlike his predecessor, who almost terminated opium production in Afghanistan in the last year of Taliban rule with one decree in 2000, the current supreme leader of the Taliban appears to be unsuccessful in implementing his ban on opium production. In April, shortly after Afghan famers harvested opium
8am: According to residents, Pas Hesar area in the 1st security district of Ghazni city has become one of the safe havens for drug addicts. Since the Taliban regime came to power in August last year, the number of drug addicts has increased in Afghanistan compared to last year. Click here to read more (external
8am: Civil activists in Samangan province voice their deep concerns over the selling of drugs by young boys in the province who are being employed to do so by the criminal gangs. Samiullah Samangani, a civil activist for the province, told Hasht-e Subh on Saturday that the selling drugs by criminal gangs have increased in
8am: Sources report the killing of two drug addicts by the Taliban in Joy Shir area of Kabul city. On Wednesday, sources said that Taliban fighters first beat up two addicts and then one of the Taliban fighters hit one of the addicts with a knife and when the addict ran away, the Taliban fighter
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).