VOA News December 2, 2017 ISLAMABAD — The top U.S. general in Afghanistan said Saturday recently launched joint strikes against Taliban sources of revenue have destroyed more than $50 million worth of narcotics in southern Helmand province. Afghanistan produces about 85 percent of the world’s opium. Income generated from drugs is providing 60 percent of the
Ayaz Gul VOA News November 20, 2017 ISLAMABAD — The United States has launched its first counter-narcotics military offensive in partnership with local allies in Afghanistan to try to deprive the resurgent Taliban of its largest source of funding. The move follows years of criticism that international forces are not doing enough to curb the opium
Ayaz Gul VOA News November 15, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan has produced a record 9,000 metric tons of opium this year, up 87 percent compared with 2016 levels. The sharp increase is recorded in a new joint survey released Wednesday by the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics and U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The
AFP: In 2016 Afghanistan, which produces 80 percent of the world’s opium, made around 4,800 tonnes of the drug bringing in revenues of three billion dollars, according to the United Nations. The Taliban — which banned poppy cultivation when it ruled Afghanistan — now appears to wield significant control over the war-torn country’s heroin production line,
The Diplomat: Opium has an analgesic effect and is the base for morphine, heroin, and other opioids that are used for medical purposes, but also for illegal drug consumption. Afghanistan accounts for some 70 percent of the global opium production, according to the World Drug Report 2016 of the United Nations Office on Drugs and
VOA News April 4, 2017 KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — An Afghan official says that in the past 12 months the country’s counter-narcotics department has seized almost 650 tons of contraband drugs and alcohol. Gen. Baz Mohammad Ahmadi, deputy interior minister for the counter-narcotics police, says the confiscated drugs include raw opium, heroin and hashish. He says that
CNBC: Last week, Afghanistan released new data showing opium production is surging, information that dovetailed with a widely circulated 2016 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report that showed similar findings. The primary problem is a new strain of genetically modified seed that comes from China, which allows poppies to be grown year round.
AA: Illegal poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has surged by 10 percent, the country’s Counter-Narcotics Ministry said Saturday. Ministry spokesman Mohammad Hanif told reporters in Kabul that besides the traditional areas of poppy cultivation in the country’s south and southwest, the northern province of Badghes has fueled much of this year’s surge in illegal poppy cultivation. Click