Pubdate: Thu, 09 Jan 2003
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2003 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Jerry Seper
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?194 (Hutchinson, Asa)

AFGHAN DRUG CROPS UP DESPITE CURBS

Opium production in Afghanistan has risen twentyfold over the past two 
years to levels similar to peak production under the terrorist-tied Taliban 
regime, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration said yesterday. Top 
Stories

DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said independent drug traffickers had 
re-established traditional trade routes in the war-torn country and there 
had been a significant increase in the number of acres planted with opium 
poppies, which are processed into heroin.

Mr. Hutchinson also said there were concerns the Afghan drug trade could 
again come under the control of terrorist organizations.

"We are seeing poppy production grow, to our regret, to the same levels 
prior to the dismantling of the Taliban," Mr. Hutchinson told reporters 
during a briefing at DEA headquarters. "Eradication has been moderately 
successful, and we are having a measure of success in containing the 
operations."

But, he said, while the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was 
strongly opposed to opium production, there were "gaps" in efforts by the 
still-splintered law enforcement agencies in that country to bring it under 
control.

Mr. Hutchinson said the Afghan government has not trained enough police to 
control the production of opium.

Federal law enforcement authorities expect the 2002 opium production total 
in Afghanistan to be about 3,700 tons, compared with 185 tons in 2000. In 
1999, Afghanistan produced a record 5,070 tons of opium.

The Karzai government tried to pay farmers to allow the destruction of 
their opium crops earlier this year, but the program ran out of money. 
There also were violent demonstrations by Afghan farmers who opposed the 
program.

The authorities estimated that the 3,700 tons of opium produced represented 
a cash crop of about $1.2 billion - in a country trying to recover from 
years of war.

In the fiscal 2003 budget, the Justice Department implemented a $17.4 
million program called "Operation Containment" aimed at identifying, 
targeting, investigating, disrupting and dismantling transnational 
heroin-trafficking organizations in Afghanistan.

The department said the links to terrorism made combating heroin production 
in Central Asia critical to U.S. security. It said Operation Containment 
would use a "multifaceted approach to drug enforcement involving a series 
of investigative, diplomatic and training initiatives."

Under Operation Containment, the DEA has directed enforcement and 
intelligence assets to dismantle all organizations, including terrorist 
groups, engaged in drug trafficking.

Before the U.S.-led war against the Taliban, Afghanistan was a major source 
for cultivation, processing and trafficking of heroin, and accounted for 
more than 70 percent of the world's supply of illicit opium in 1999. 
Morphine base and heroin produced in Afghanistan were trafficked worldwide 
and narcotics was the largest source of income in Afghanistan as a result 
of the decimation of the country's economic infrastructure.

The ousted Taliban militia controlled the opium trade, according to 
government estimates. The sale of the product, authorities said, brought 
the Taliban as much as $40 million a year with some of the cash going to 
the terrorists who hid and trained in that country, including Osama bin 
Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network.

The Taliban taxed opium harvests, heroin production and drug shipments to 
help finance its purchases of arms and war materials, pay for terrorist 
training, and support the operation of Islamist extremists in neighboring 
countries.

In January 2002 the Afghan Interim Authority (AIA) announced a ban on poppy 
cultivation and began an eradication program that targeted about a quarter 
of the 2002 spring poppy crop.
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