.Nato military campaign cuts drug production in Afghanistan
Aggressive military operations against drug traffickers in Afghanistan have helped to reduce opium cultivation in Helmand province by one-third this year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports today.
British and other coalition troops are now mandated by Nato to hunt trafficking cartels linked to the Taleban. Since last year, when Nato changed its rules of engagement, there have been 85 counter-narcotics operations, and some of the biggest traffickers have been jailed.
One network, headed by Haji Abdullah, has been eliminated, according to British officials. He was arrested at Herat airport in western Afghanistan in February, and jailed for 20 years.
There have been nearly 260 drugs convictions this year, compared with none last year. Yet even with this progress, it is estimated that some $100 million a year from the trade is being channelled to the Taleban.
The Unodc report says a 33 per cent cut in opium cultivation in Helmand, one of the main poppygrowing provinces, was also due to strong leadership from Mohammad Mangal — the provincial governor who created a “food zone” in the central valley by distributing wheat seed to 32,000 households and persuading farmers to stop growing poppies.
Falling opium prices and steeply rising wheat prices also played a key part, Undoc says in its annual Afghanistan opium survey. “At a time of pessimism about the situation in Afghanistan, these results are good news and demonstrate progress is possible,” said Antonio Maria Costa, its executive director.
Afghanistan supplies 90 per cent of the world’s opium, and though the volume cultivated was reduced, the country still produced 6,900 tonnes during the year — partly because farmers extracted more opium per poppy. Global consumption of opium is estimated at some 5,000 tonnes a year, suggesting that a large amount of production is being stockpiled.
Across the country, opium cultivation fell 22 per cent during the year, from 157,000 hectares last year to 123,000 hectares. In Helmand, cultivation was reduced from 103,590 hectares to 69,833 hectares.
Government eradication programmes played little part in the reduction, however. Mr Costa said that eradication “continues to be a failure”. Over the past two years, only 10,000 hectares of opium poppies — less than four per cent of the amount planted — were eradicated, “at an enormous human and economic cost”.
Tougher military action, however, especially in Helmand, has discouraged farmers from planting the crop. In the first half of this year, military operations destroyed more than 90 tons of “precursor chemicals” — used to convert the poppy resin into opium, morphine and heroin. At the same time, operations destroyed 450 tons of poppy seeds, 50 tons of opium, 7 tons of morphine, 1.5 tons of heroin, 19 tons of hashish and 27 laboratories.
The UN report said that falling prices and lower cultivation this year caused a 40 per cent drop in the total “farm-gate” value of opium production in Afghanistan, falling to $438 million.
Timesonline
British and other coalition troops are now mandated by Nato to hunt trafficking cartels linked to the Taleban. Since last year, when Nato changed its rules of engagement, there have been 85 counter-narcotics operations, and some of the biggest traffickers have been jailed.
One network, headed by Haji Abdullah, has been eliminated, according to British officials. He was arrested at Herat airport in western Afghanistan in February, and jailed for 20 years.
There have been nearly 260 drugs convictions this year, compared with none last year. Yet even with this progress, it is estimated that some $100 million a year from the trade is being channelled to the Taleban.
The Unodc report says a 33 per cent cut in opium cultivation in Helmand, one of the main poppygrowing provinces, was also due to strong leadership from Mohammad Mangal — the provincial governor who created a “food zone” in the central valley by distributing wheat seed to 32,000 households and persuading farmers to stop growing poppies.
Falling opium prices and steeply rising wheat prices also played a key part, Undoc says in its annual Afghanistan opium survey. “At a time of pessimism about the situation in Afghanistan, these results are good news and demonstrate progress is possible,” said Antonio Maria Costa, its executive director.
Afghanistan supplies 90 per cent of the world’s opium, and though the volume cultivated was reduced, the country still produced 6,900 tonnes during the year — partly because farmers extracted more opium per poppy. Global consumption of opium is estimated at some 5,000 tonnes a year, suggesting that a large amount of production is being stockpiled.
Across the country, opium cultivation fell 22 per cent during the year, from 157,000 hectares last year to 123,000 hectares. In Helmand, cultivation was reduced from 103,590 hectares to 69,833 hectares.
Government eradication programmes played little part in the reduction, however. Mr Costa said that eradication “continues to be a failure”. Over the past two years, only 10,000 hectares of opium poppies — less than four per cent of the amount planted — were eradicated, “at an enormous human and economic cost”.
Tougher military action, however, especially in Helmand, has discouraged farmers from planting the crop. In the first half of this year, military operations destroyed more than 90 tons of “precursor chemicals” — used to convert the poppy resin into opium, morphine and heroin. At the same time, operations destroyed 450 tons of poppy seeds, 50 tons of opium, 7 tons of morphine, 1.5 tons of heroin, 19 tons of hashish and 27 laboratories.
The UN report said that falling prices and lower cultivation this year caused a 40 per cent drop in the total “farm-gate” value of opium production in Afghanistan, falling to $438 million.
Timesonline
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