Article

2010-10-29 Afghanistan

Afghan Drug Raid Nets $56M of High Quality Heroin

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Posted by gorb 2010-10-29 01:27|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 If it's "street value", that would be what?, four pounds?

Posted by Anonymoose 2010-10-29 09:20|| 2010-10-29 09:20|| Front Page Top

#2 BBC

Russia and US collaborate in Afghanistan drug raid
Map of Afghanistan

Russian and US agents have taken part in a joint operation to destroy drug laboratories in Afghanistan, the head of Russia's drug control agency says.

More than a tonne of heroin and opium was seized during the raids, which took place on Thursday close to the border with Pakistan, Viktor Ivanov announced.

Mr Ivanov said the haul had a street value of $250m (Â£157m) and was believed to have been destined for Central Asia.

Posted by Willy 2010-10-29 10:01|| 2010-10-29 10:01|| Front Page Top

#3 More from APee:
U.S. and Russian special forces have raided drug labs in Afghanistan in an unprecedented collaborative military operation, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said Friday, destroying what a Russian official said was $250 million worth of heroin and morphine.

Afghan forces also were involved in the raid on four laboratories near the Pakistan border, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson said on customary condition of anonymity.

"This operation significantly damaged heroin manufacturing capabilities ... and at the same time demonstrated the will of the Afghan nation and those allies who are impacted by drug trafficking to take necessary steps to bring stability to the country," the spokesperson said in e-mailed comments. "This was a very significant operation which could not have been done by one nation alone."

Three of the labs produced heroin, while the fourth manufactured morphine for a long-established drugs route into Pakistan and beyond that had been worth an estimated $1 billion to the drug trade, RIA Novosti cited Russia's anti-narcotics chief Victor Ivanov as saying. Ivanov said up to 200 million doses of heroin were seized....Ivanov, who was in Washington for a meeting of a commission on drugs set up by the U.S. and Russian presidents to improve cooperation, says that months ago he provided U.S. officials in Kabul with the coordinates of 175 laboratories where heroin is processed.

He says U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials there have told him they are awaiting U.S. military approval to take down the labs.

Russia long has complained that the U.S. and NATO refusal to put in place poppy eradication programs in Afghanistan is contributing to a flood of Afghan heroin into Russia. U.S. officials have argued that destruction of poppy fields would drive Afghan farmers into the arms of the Taliban.

Posted by Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2010-10-29 10:36|| 2010-10-29 10:36|| Front Page Top

#4 There is something to be said for seizing the stuff after they have gone through all the trouble to make it and pay the workers. That way they are in debt in a bad way at the end of the year and have nothing to sell to pay for it.

Posted by gorb 2010-10-29 10:41|| 2010-10-29 10:41|| Front Page Top

#5 Once the heroin supply is at risk, the politicians in the pocket of the mob will begin loudly demanding that we get out.

Posted by crosspatch 2010-10-29 17:00|| 2010-10-29 17:00|| Front Page Top

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