BA (Hons) Political Science & International
Relations
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
> From The New York Daily News of December 10,
2001
>
> Heroin's Ugly Role In Afghanistan
> By Pete
Hamill
>
> We've seen the images of kids flying kites again in
Kabul, and brave
> women baring their faces, and shopkeepers offering
satellite dishes made
> from tin cans. We've seen the statesmen in Germany
smiling as they named
> an interim government. We've seen the bombing of
Tora Bora and the white
> flags of surrender in Kandahar. We've heard
hourly bulletins about the
> search for Mullah Omar and Osama Bin
Laden.
>
> But nobody yet has used the one word that is crucial to
understanding
> Afghanistan.
>
> The word is heroin.
>
>
> Afghan fighter against the Taliban guards in Spinboldak,
across the
> border from Pakistan, yesterday.
> The various warlords
now sporadically killing one another in different
> parts of the country -
and on the streets of Kandahar - are almost
> certainly fighting to
control the heroin racket. Forget about such
> marvelous abstractions as
freedom, liberty and democracy. The true goal
> is far more familiar to
those of us who have lived in a major heroin
> market for five decades.
They're killing for the same reasons that mob
> families have killed for
two generations: to control the supply of
> smack.
>
> The
great prize for the warlords is supposed to be hidden in those
> endless
networks of caves in the north and west of the ruined country.
> According
to the UN, the British Home Office and the Drug Enforcement
>
Administration, some of it is pure morphine base. Some has been
>
processed by Afghan labs into heroin. Tons of hashish are there, too,
>
say the experts, ready to flood the postwar domestic market.
>
> Up
to 100-Pound Busts
>
> Nobody is certain. So far, says Steven
Casteel, the DEA's assistant
> administrator for intelligence, seizures
have been small, between 40 and
> 100 pounds. Over the weekend, he said of
the Taliban: "They are not
> dumb. This is their savings account, and for
that reason obviously a lot
> of them have made every effort to move that
savings account to a safe
> haven outside the country."
>
>
But even Casteel is uncertain about the basic information. Some of the
>
stockpile might have been destroyed by American bombs aimed at Afghan
>
and Arab fighters. Some must await the end of the shooting war.
>
>
Certainly, the sheer numbers of potential profits reduce the $25 million
>
reward for Bin Laden to tip money. Last year, the State Department
>
estimated that the Afghan crop was 3,656 metric tons, which was 72% of
>
the world's supply (Myanmar/Burma was a distant second.) The United
>
Nations estimated in 1999 that the value of the Afghan opium crop was
>
$265 million as it left the poppy farms, and that the Taliban extracted
>
from that sum about $40 million in taxes. A recent BBC report by Richard
>
Davenport-Hines stated that the profit margin for Afghan drug
>
traffickers is about 300%. We are talking here of potential profits in
>
the billions.
>
> Stashing it Away
>
> Last year,
under pressure from UN development agencies, the Taliban
> banned the
growing of poppies. They actually took some steps to enforce
> the ban,
but first permitted the creation of a strategic reserve. They
> stashed
many tons of drugs in caves in northern and western Afghanistan.
> The
intent was clear: to supply the outside world while keeping prices
> at a
high level.
>
> But in the late summer of this year, the
puritanical students of Mullah
> Omar made a big shift. On Sept. 2, the
Voice of Shariat - run by the
> Taliban - announced that the ban on poppy
growing was over. This might
> have been because Mullah Omar and his
fellow holy men had been tipped
> about what would happen nine days later.
We won't know for many months.
> But there was a practical short-term
reason for the lifting of the ban.
> The planting season for poppy farmers
would begin in late September and
> they needed to buy seeds.
>
> Meanwhile, through the years of Taliban domination, the drug
trade
> flourished. Their rivals, the heroic freedom fighters of the
Northern
> Alliance, had a piece of the action. On some levels, the
exchange was
> simple: You give us guns and we'll give you heroin. Trucks
arrived with
> food, dropped off their humanitarian cargoes, and nobody
asked what
> might be hidden in wheel casings when the vehicles left
Afghanistan.
> Certainly, by all reports, every border was
corrupt.
>
> Millions of Addicts
>
> In spite of the
war, smuggling routes still exist. One western route
> drives into Iran,
which has 3 million heroin addicts of its own among a
> population of 60
million. From Iran, after local markets are served, the
> cargo is
eventually dispersed into Turkey, Europe and the United States.
> Iran
says it has lost 15,000 dead soldiers and policemen trying to stop
> the
Afghan drug trade, an additional reason for its fierce opposition to
> the
Taliban regime. The smuggling continues.
>
> The southern route
pushes into Pakistan, which also contains an
> estimated 3 million addicts
in its cities and refugee camps (with twice
> the population of Iran).
Supplies of morphine base and refined heroin
> are often taken to ships
operating out of Karachi on the Arabian Sea for
> movement to the West.
Corruption is general, on high levels and low.
>
> The northern
route moves easily through the Central Asian republics -
> with our ally,
Tajikistan, a virtual narcorepublic. The shipments are
> often guided by
Muslim gangsters from Chechnya toward Kosovo-Albanian
> syndicates, or to
the hard men of the Russian Mafia. In turn, according
> to the Drug
Enforcement Administration, heroin passes through Bulgaria,
> the Czech
Republic, Romania or Hungary on its way to the lucrative
> markets of the
West, including America.
>
> 80% From Afghanistan
>
>
Through these complicated, shifting routes, much Afghan heroin finds its
>
way to the drug supermarkets of Amsterdam, where the DEA says it is
>
auctioned among British, Irish, Israeli, Turkish, Nigerian and Kurdish
>
gangsters. By all accounts, heroin addiction is spreading in Europe,
>
with 80% of the supply traced by drug agents to Afghanistan. And, of
>
course, New York gets it share.
>
> So far, we've heard no reports
of the bombing of existing poppy fields
> in Kandahar or Helmand
provinces. We haven't heard about a single major
> drug seizure in opium
storage caves around Darunta, Bhesud or anywhere
> else. No significant
drug busts have been made along Afghanistan's
> porous borders.
>
> All of which creates a ripening odor. As Afghan warlords fight
one
> another in Kandahar for the spoils, we still don't know what
private
> arrangements were made by the U.S. to create its anti-Taliban
alliance.
> We certainly don't know if the continuity of the heroin trade
was part
> of the deal. If it was, we will live with the terrible exports
of
> Afghanistan long after Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar are tossed
into
> the rubbish heap of history.
>
> E-mail: phamill@edit.nydailynews.com
>
>
> Original Publication Date: 12/10/01