Afghan troops seize USD 26-M worth of drugs

Afghan troops waged an anti-drug operation and seized 26-million-dollar worth of drugs in eastern Nangarhar province, the command of Afghan Special Forces said Wednesday. (Photo by TUBS [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)])

“Afghan Special Forces and Counter-Narcotics Police of Afghanistan carried out an operation in Khogyani district, Nangarhar province on Monday night, seizing a large amount of narcotics and drugs,” it said in a statement.

Among the drugs were 8,000 kg heroin, 500 liters of liquid heroin, 230 kg of ammonium chloride and a big amount of chemical elements that has been used in making heroin were found, the statement said.

The restive Nangarhar province with Jalalabad city as its capital, 120 km east of national capital Kabul, has been the scene of heavy clashes between security forces, Taliban militants and Islamic State (IS) fighters over the past years.

The seizure of the drugs was a heavy blow for insurgents and anti-government militants as they have been using profits from the illegal drugs to fund insurgency, the statement added.

Much of the world’s opium poppy is cultivated in the militancy-hit country.

In 2016, some 4,800 tons of opium was produced in Afghanistan particularly in western and southern parts of the country, where the government security forces have little presence, according to official figures.