phr
Bluelighter
Afghan Drug Lords Hire Chemists to Make Purer Heroin
Ed Johnson
Bloomberg.com
7.29.08
July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Drug lords in Afghanistan are hiring international chemists to boost the purity of heroin refined from the country's opium poppy crop and importing thousands of tons of chemicals for the process, the United Nations said.
The drug laboratories are concentrated in eastern and southern provinces, where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, and most of the chemists come from nearby countries, Christina Oguz of the UN Office for Drugs and Crime said.
``This is a business, obviously, so you look for the best expertise you can get,'' Oguz told reporters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, yesterday.
Afghanistan provides more than 90 percent of the world's supply of opium, the raw ingredient for heroin, and the illicit drugs trade helps fund the Taliban insurgency, according to the UN. Revenue from the sale of illegal drugs is being used to finance terrorist training bases across the border in Pakistan, buy weapons and explosives for suicide bombings and import the chemicals needed for drug refining, the world body says.
While Oguz didn't identify the nationalities of the chemists being hired, she said they came from countries close to eastern Nangarhar province, Kandahar, Helmand and Nimroz, where most of the laboratories are located. That would include Pakistan and Iran.
Raw Opium
Afghan drug lords, who used to export raw opium, are increasingly refining the poppies and the UN estimates that 60 percent of last year's crop was turned into heroin within the country, Oguz said, according to a transcript of the briefing.
About 13,000 metric tons of chemicals, including 1,500 tons of acetic anhydride, are needed for the process, based on the size of last year's crop, she added.
The chemicals are used legally in the paint and pharmaceutical industries and in most cases legally exported from countries such as China, Russia, South Korea and some European nations, Oguz said.
``The problem is that once the chemicals have reached some of the countries around Afghanistan then they disappear'' and are smuggled across the border, she told reporters. A shipment of chemicals was seized at Karachi port in Pakistan in February and the UN has ``evidence of significant quantities of chemicals crossing the border with Iran.''
Afghanistan shares a 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) border with Pakistan and a 936-kilometer frontier with Iran.
UN Training
The UN is training and equipping counter-narcotics, border and customs police in Afghanistan to help cut the flow of the chemicals and also working with neighboring countries, she said.
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran last year pledged to share intelligence on smuggling routes, bolster frontier security and hold joint counter-narcotics operations.
``The challenge now is for the wider international community to come together and share information on known smugglers,'' she said.
The Taliban regime, which enforced Islamic law on Afghanistan until it was ousted by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001, banned opium production in the country.
The drugs trade is now a ``massive source of revenue'' for the insurgents who tax farmers at 10 percent, the UNODC says.
Afghanistan's 2007 opium harvest rose 38 percent to a record 8,200 metric tons from 6,100 tons a year earlier, according to the UNODC. Land cultivated to grow the drug increased by 17 percent to 193,000 hectares (476,700 acres) and cultivation in 2008 will be ``broadly similar.''
Link!
Ed Johnson
Bloomberg.com
7.29.08
July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Drug lords in Afghanistan are hiring international chemists to boost the purity of heroin refined from the country's opium poppy crop and importing thousands of tons of chemicals for the process, the United Nations said.
The drug laboratories are concentrated in eastern and southern provinces, where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, and most of the chemists come from nearby countries, Christina Oguz of the UN Office for Drugs and Crime said.
``This is a business, obviously, so you look for the best expertise you can get,'' Oguz told reporters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, yesterday.
Afghanistan provides more than 90 percent of the world's supply of opium, the raw ingredient for heroin, and the illicit drugs trade helps fund the Taliban insurgency, according to the UN. Revenue from the sale of illegal drugs is being used to finance terrorist training bases across the border in Pakistan, buy weapons and explosives for suicide bombings and import the chemicals needed for drug refining, the world body says.
While Oguz didn't identify the nationalities of the chemists being hired, she said they came from countries close to eastern Nangarhar province, Kandahar, Helmand and Nimroz, where most of the laboratories are located. That would include Pakistan and Iran.
Raw Opium
Afghan drug lords, who used to export raw opium, are increasingly refining the poppies and the UN estimates that 60 percent of last year's crop was turned into heroin within the country, Oguz said, according to a transcript of the briefing.
About 13,000 metric tons of chemicals, including 1,500 tons of acetic anhydride, are needed for the process, based on the size of last year's crop, she added.
The chemicals are used legally in the paint and pharmaceutical industries and in most cases legally exported from countries such as China, Russia, South Korea and some European nations, Oguz said.
``The problem is that once the chemicals have reached some of the countries around Afghanistan then they disappear'' and are smuggled across the border, she told reporters. A shipment of chemicals was seized at Karachi port in Pakistan in February and the UN has ``evidence of significant quantities of chemicals crossing the border with Iran.''
Afghanistan shares a 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) border with Pakistan and a 936-kilometer frontier with Iran.
UN Training
The UN is training and equipping counter-narcotics, border and customs police in Afghanistan to help cut the flow of the chemicals and also working with neighboring countries, she said.
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran last year pledged to share intelligence on smuggling routes, bolster frontier security and hold joint counter-narcotics operations.
``The challenge now is for the wider international community to come together and share information on known smugglers,'' she said.
The Taliban regime, which enforced Islamic law on Afghanistan until it was ousted by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001, banned opium production in the country.
The drugs trade is now a ``massive source of revenue'' for the insurgents who tax farmers at 10 percent, the UNODC says.
Afghanistan's 2007 opium harvest rose 38 percent to a record 8,200 metric tons from 6,100 tons a year earlier, according to the UNODC. Land cultivated to grow the drug increased by 17 percent to 193,000 hectares (476,700 acres) and cultivation in 2008 will be ``broadly similar.''
Link!
so opium farming is a tool of jihad, narco-terrorism and a means of cash to fund the "holy war"
