THE world's biggest drug bust has been executed by narcotics agents in Afghanistan, who say they uncovered 236 tonnes of hashish hidden in trenches in the south of the country.The massive haul, found in the southern province of Kandahar on Monday, was worth more than $US400 million ($426 million) and would have netted the Taliban about $US14 million in profits, NATO officials said yesterday. It weighed as much as 30 double-decker London buses. "To our knowledge, this was the biggest drug seizure in the world," said Afghanistan's deputy interior minister Abdul Hadi Khalid. He said the drugs were found hidden in multiple trenches and that all 236.8 tonnes were burned in the trenches later the same day.
| "Whoa! Dewd! Blow some my way!" |
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime today congratulated Afghan police on the raid. "This is a massive seizure, and a major success for counter-narcotics in Afghanistan," said UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa. "Notorious for being the world's biggest producer of opium, Afghanistan has also become a major source of cannabis resin."
| Sixteen people, including four Iranians and seven Pakistanis, have been arrested in connection with the stash. |
Afghanistan's biggest drug problem is not hashish but opium. It produced 9000 tonnes last year, enough to make 93 per cent of the world's heroin supply. But officials have increased warnings that farmers who no longer grow opium poppies because of successful eradication programs have turned their fields to cannabis, the plant used to produce hashish and marijuana, giving the country a second drug problem.
Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Hadi Khalid said three men were arrested over the hashish bust. He said 21 of the country's 36 provinces were opium free, but eradication efforts in Kandahar, Helmand, Farah and Uruzgan provinces did not go well this year because of continuing violence. Forty-three members of the country's counter-narcotics police were killed in eradication operations this spring, he said. In nearby Helmand province, the Interior Ministry said police seized 5100kg of opium and arrested 13 drug dealers.