Pubdate: Tue, 25 Oct 2005
Source: Ogdensburg Journal/Advance News (NY)
Copyright: 2005 Johnson Newspaper Corp.
Contact: http://www.ogd.com/letter.htm
Website: http://www.ogd.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/689
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/afghanistan

AFGHANI DRUG LORD EXTRADITED

NEW YORK - An Afghani drug lord who allegedly wanted to poison U.S.
streets with deadly drugs in an "American Jihad" has become the first
person extradited from Afghanistan to face federal charges,
authorities said Monday.

Haji Baz Mohammad was "one of the world's most wanted, most powerful
and most dangerous drug kingpins" and financed the Taliban with his
opium trade since 1990, Drug Enforcement Administrator Karen Tandy
said.

"In return, the Taliban protected Mohammad's crops, his heroin labs
and his associates," Tandy said after an indictment unsealed in U.S.
District Court in Manhattan charged Mohammad with narcotics conspiracy.

Mohammad is accused of smuggling more than $25 million of heroin into
the United States and elsewhere.

The defendant, who was arrested in Kandahar, Afghanistan in January,
arrived in the United States on Friday. In June, President Bush had
added Mohammad's name to a list of major foreign narcotics
traffickers.

In his first appearance in court Monday, Mohammad said through an
interpreter, "I am innocent.

He was ordered held without bail.

His lawyer declined to comment afterward.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin