Pubdate: Tue, 17 May 2005
Source: BBC News (UK Web)
Copyright: 2005 BBC
Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Author: Tom Coghlan, Afghanistan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

MEETING AN AFGHAN DRUGS SMUGGLER

We met the smuggler in Kandahar in the lawless lands of southern 
Afghanistan. As we drove to his house he pointed out gaudy new mansions 
with neo-classical pillars that dotted his neighbourhood.

They were built with drug money, the smuggler said.

At his home he showed us a 10kg (22lbs) vat of liquid opium. A heavy, 
organic scent filled the room.

"I have one ton of dry opium buried in a desert area close to the Iranian 
border," he said.

It was made clear that it would not be safe for us to reveal his identity.

The arrest last month of Bashir Noorzai, a man US authorities allege to be 
the king-pin of the southern Afghan drugs trade, signals a new US 
determination in the country's expanding drugs war.

But in the south of the country where central government control is weak, 
the drug smugglers remain relatively unconcerned by the threats emanating 
from Kabul and Washington.

This year the US has more than tripled its funding to fight the Afghan 
drugs problem, raising it to $780m.

But ranged against the counter-narcotics forces is an industry that may 
amount to as much as 60% of Afghanistan's gross domestic product.

In early April, a new 600-strong counter-narcotics force trained by the US 
that was sent from Kabul to undertake a programme of mass eradication in 
Kandahar province was driven off with gunfire on its first operation near 
the town of Maiwand.

During the days that followed local tribal elders said they agreed a deal 
with the provincial government only to eradicate one third of every poppy 
field in exchange for a promise of non-resistance.

'Endemic corruption'

In reality, eradication efforts undertaken by local police that I witnessed 
amounted to a fraction of even that goal.

The smuggler said there was little to fear while so many officials within 
the government and police were profiting from the drugs trade.

Corruption was endemic, he said. "If I don't pay bribes then I can't work," 
he laughed.

"Every warlord, every commander, if they are not smugglers for 2005, were 
smugglers from the 1970s until 2003 or 2004.

"So they have quite enough for their future. They don't need to work any more."

He named a string of senior local figures he claimed had direct or indirect 
links to the trade.

The smuggler acknowledged that central government efforts had succeeded in 
closing the major highways to opium traffic.

But he said that alternative routes were easily arranged.

"There is a desert area close to the Iranian border. From there you can 
move drugs to Iran and to Pakistan and Iraq.

"We use land cruiser cars to take the drugs to this area and we pay people 
to bury it there in the sand and guard it.

"We pay these people 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,680) each."

'Air strikes'

"They carry arms to guard the drugs from robbers or the police.

"After a week or a month or whenever the dealers from across the borders 
arrive, they come down and take the drugs out from the sand and hand them 
over."

There was only one fear that the smuggler would admit to - the threat from 
US airpower. "The planes can follow us anywhere. "The people are afraid of 
air strikes. "They are not afraid of attacks from the ground," the smuggler 
said.

He claimed that there was no single dominant dealer in Kandahar and its 
neighbouring major drug producing province, Helmand.

"There are about 1,000 big smugglers," he said.

Smugglers were unconcerned by the threat of eradication in the short term, 
he said.

While they retained large stocks of stored opium, the insatiable demand of 
European heroin addicts ensured massive price inflation when supply was 
squeezed.

The smuggler said that the value of his stock had increased by 50-75% in 
the week following the attempted mass eradication at Maiwand.

'Escalating violence'

"If they eradicate all the land in Kandahar, even the poorest farmers have 
two or three reserve parcels of opium at their homes.

"They can eradicate but the farmer can get the profit of one acre of opium 
from one kilo because of the price rise," he said.

Violence would begin to escalate significantly once the stocks of dry opium 
began to dwindle, he said, and that is expected to take place next year.

We asked whether he was aware of the consequences of drug addiction in 
foreign countries.

"Whatever I am, I am not killing people, I am not looting people, I am not 
doing any other kind of illegal job," he replied.

"I have my own life. I have a wife, children, sisters, mother, brothers. I 
belong to a family who live within the limits of Islam."

As the smuggler drove with us back into the city we reached a police road 
block. The police greeted the smuggler with warm familiarity. "They are my 
friends," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom