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From: Alamaine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: CTRL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 8:51 am
Subject: [ctrl] Afghan heroin trade is fuelling the Taliban insurgency
Independent.co.uk
Drugs for guns: how the Afghan heroin trade is fuelling the Taliban
insurgency
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/drugs-for-guns-how-the-afghan-heroin-trade-is-fuelling-the-taliban-insurgency-817230.html
By Jerome Starkey in Kunduz
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
The heroin flooding Britain's streets is threatening the lives of UK
troops in Afghanistan, an Independent investigation can reveal.
Russian gangsters who smuggle drugs into Britain are buying cheap heroin
from Afghanistan and paying for it with guns. Smugglers told The
Independent how Russian arms dealers meet Taliban drug lords at a bazaar
near the old Afghan-Soviet border, deep in Tajikistan's desert. The bazaar
exists solely to trade Afghan drugs for Russian guns – and sometimes a bit
of sex on the side.
The drugs are destined for Britain's streets. The guns go straight to the
Taliban front line. The weapons on sale include machine guns, sniper
rifles and anti-aircraft weapons like the ones used in the attempt to
assassinate the Afghan President Hamid Karzai last weekend.
"We never sell the drugs for money," boasted one of the smugglers. "We
exchange them for ammunition and Kalashnikovs."
The drugs come mostly from Helmand, where most of Britain's 7,800 troops
are based. The opium grown there is turned into heroin at factories inside
Afghanistan, sold into Tajikistan and smuggled to Europe. The guns are
broken down into parts, smuggled back into Afghanistan and delivered to
the Taliban. One kilogram of heroin can buy about 30 AK-47 assault rifles
at the bazaar.
Nato claims the Taliban get between 40 and 60 per cent of their income
from drugs. The smugglers' claims suggest the real cost could be far
higher.
The smugglers described a bleak village with no homes, hidden in the
desert near the border. Inside open-air courtyards up to 300 shopkeepers
sit in small booths. They act as agents of the Russian mafia who supply
the guns and spirit the drugs away. The Afghans are agents of corrupt
officials in their government, said a mid-level lieutenant Daoud.
Around them lurk Tajik prostitutes, selling themselves for a few scraps of
surplus heroin. "They will do anything. They just want some heroin and we
always have some spare," said another smuggler.
We interviewed three smugglers in the lawless border areas north and east
of Kunduz, a city in northern Afghanistan, as well as a Taliban go-between
who was visiting from Helmand.
Speaking from his headquarters in Kunduz province, Daoud said Afghan
smugglers lug sacks of grade-A heroin across the river Oxus, which marks
the Tajik border. They drive pick-ups as far as they can, take motorbikes
where the cars can't go, and finish the journey on foot. "We leave early
in the evening and get there around 9am the next day," he said. "There
aren't even any tracks because we never ride the motorbikes to the same
place twice."
The heroin is harvested from opium farms across Afghanistan and taken to
factories in the remote Pamir mountains in the Badakhshan region, where it
is turned into heroin. It takes about 15kg of opium to make 1kg of heroin,
said Daoud. From Badakhshan it is brought west to Kunduz, for the trip to
Tajikistan. The weapons follow similar routes, but in the opposite
direction, south and east to the fighting.
"We are like a company," said Daoud. "We have some big sponsors who
support us in the government."
A kilogram of the best Afghan heroin is worth £600 in Afghanistan. It is
worth twice as much at the bazaar in Tajikistan. But rather than take
cash, they take weapon parts, because they double their value in
Afghanistan. An AK-47 assault rifle costs £50 at the bazaar. It is worth
up to £100 in northern Afghanistan, and even more in the south and east
where demand for guns is higher, because of the fighting.
The Taliban go-between said fighters in Helmand expect to get six AK-47s
for 1kg of good quality heroin, a similar number of rocket-propelled
grenades or a dozen boxes of ammunition.
British special forces have arrested or killed drugs smugglers linked to
the insurgency, alongside a secretive unit of the Afghan army called 333,
but the bulk of the International Security Assistance Force is handicapped
by its mandate which does not include counter-narcotics operations, unless
they can be linked to the insurgency.
The smugglers claimed they are "untouchable" because their bosses include
cabinet-level officials in the government. British officials suspect
senior government insiders are involved in the drugs trade, but they have
struggled to get the support from Mr Karzai, or the evidence, to arrest
them.
Opium production has soared since 2001. The head of British-led efforts to
crack down on the crop, David Belgrove, said: "This proves what we and the
rest of the international community have been saying. There's clear
evidence that the drugs trade fuels the insurgency."
The commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, the US general, Dan McNeill,
pledged to take his mandate to the limit to target drug traffickers. But
so far, the smugglers insist they are not feeling the pinch.
Violence last year reached record highs, and the Taliban have launched two
attacks in Kabul this year. "The heroin is what lets us fight," said the
Taliban go-between.
Query: Independent.co.uk The Web
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