MikeD
10-25-2006, 11:15 AM
120 pounds of opium, too.
NATO and the Afghans found it. Damn, that's alot of weed...
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO-led troops killed 38 suspected insurgents in two separate confrontations in southern Afghanistan, and Western troops and Afghan police elsewhere seized more than 9 tons of marijuana from a truck, officials said Wednesday.
The fighting in Kandahar’s Zhari and Panjwayi districts on Tuesday targeted militants that were attacking the alliance’s “development efforts” in the area, said Maj. Luke Knittig, the spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.
NATO forces launched a major military operation in the Panjwayi area in September. The alliance said it killed more than 500 suspected militants during that offensive.
NATO-led troops and Afghan police, meanwhile, seized the tons of marijuana from a truck that was stopped in southern Afghanistan on a road linking the southern city of Kandahar with Kabul, the alliance said. Four people in the truck were detained.
In the country’s west, U.S. and Afghan troops recovered more than 120 pounds of opium from a car in Farah province, another NATO statement said Tuesday.
The U.S. soldiers were supporting an Afghan National Army checkpoint when a car failed to stop, the statement said. An Afghan soldier noticed a suspicious bag where the spare tire was supposed to be and alerted the next checkpoint. A search of the vehicle netted the opium. The car’s driver and passenger were detained.
Record opium production
Afghanistan’s world-leading opium cultivation rose 59 percent this year, according to U.N. figures released last month.
The record crop yielded 6,100 tons of opium, or enough to make 610 tons of heroin — outstripping the demand of the world’s heroin users by a third, according to U.N. figures.
According to the U.N.’s Office on Drugs and Crime, some 2.9 million people were involved in growing opium, representing 12.5 percent of the total Afghan population, and that revenue from this year’s harvest was predicted to hit over $3 billion.
Opium cultivation has surged since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001. The former regime had enforced an effective ban on poppy growing by threatening to jail farmers — virtually eradicating the crop in 2000.
But Afghan and Western counter-narcotics officials say Taliban-led militants are now implicated in the drug trade, encouraging poppy cultivation and using the proceeds to help fund their insurgency.
The U.N. anti-drug chief also urged the government to crack down on big traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police officers fueling the trade.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15410169/
*Most emphasis in article mine*
NATO and the Afghans found it. Damn, that's alot of weed...
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO-led troops killed 38 suspected insurgents in two separate confrontations in southern Afghanistan, and Western troops and Afghan police elsewhere seized more than 9 tons of marijuana from a truck, officials said Wednesday.
The fighting in Kandahar’s Zhari and Panjwayi districts on Tuesday targeted militants that were attacking the alliance’s “development efforts” in the area, said Maj. Luke Knittig, the spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.
NATO forces launched a major military operation in the Panjwayi area in September. The alliance said it killed more than 500 suspected militants during that offensive.
NATO-led troops and Afghan police, meanwhile, seized the tons of marijuana from a truck that was stopped in southern Afghanistan on a road linking the southern city of Kandahar with Kabul, the alliance said. Four people in the truck were detained.
In the country’s west, U.S. and Afghan troops recovered more than 120 pounds of opium from a car in Farah province, another NATO statement said Tuesday.
The U.S. soldiers were supporting an Afghan National Army checkpoint when a car failed to stop, the statement said. An Afghan soldier noticed a suspicious bag where the spare tire was supposed to be and alerted the next checkpoint. A search of the vehicle netted the opium. The car’s driver and passenger were detained.
Record opium production
Afghanistan’s world-leading opium cultivation rose 59 percent this year, according to U.N. figures released last month.
The record crop yielded 6,100 tons of opium, or enough to make 610 tons of heroin — outstripping the demand of the world’s heroin users by a third, according to U.N. figures.
According to the U.N.’s Office on Drugs and Crime, some 2.9 million people were involved in growing opium, representing 12.5 percent of the total Afghan population, and that revenue from this year’s harvest was predicted to hit over $3 billion.
Opium cultivation has surged since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001. The former regime had enforced an effective ban on poppy growing by threatening to jail farmers — virtually eradicating the crop in 2000.
But Afghan and Western counter-narcotics officials say Taliban-led militants are now implicated in the drug trade, encouraging poppy cultivation and using the proceeds to help fund their insurgency.
The U.N. anti-drug chief also urged the government to crack down on big traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police officers fueling the trade.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15410169/
*Most emphasis in article mine*