Pubdate: Thu, 13 Apr 2006
Source: Mail and Guardian (South Africa)
Copyright: Mail & Guardian, 2006
Contact:  http://www.mg.co.za/mg/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/254
Author: Declan Walsh

'SCREW YOU,' SAY AFGHAN DRUG LORDS

The smugglers trail crosses salt-encrusted plains, scrabbly farmland  
and hundreds of blossoming poppy fields. Suddenly a fortress-like  
structure looms. The high-walled mansion belongs to Haji Adam, an  
opium smuggler, locals say. Tales of his wealth are legion.

"When he became sick he was flown straight to Germany," said a man in  
the next village, Garmser, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Even  
helicopters have landed at his house," said another.

Yet, like every Afghan drug lord, Haji Adam has little to fear from  
the law. Since the Western-led war on drugs started four years ago,  
only two major smugglers have been arrested -- Haji Baz Muhammad, who  
was extradited to the United States last October, and Bashir Noorzai,  
who was arrested in New York six months earlier. But the remainder  
are apparently untouchable.

"Many smugglers don't even bother hiding their wealth," said a  
British diplomat in Kabul. "It's their way of saying screw you to  
authority."

The kingpins are as wealthy as they are indiscreet, the apex of a  
$2,7-billion trade that has dominated the Afghan economy, poisoned  
its politics and employs one in 10 of the workforce. The smugglers  
are deeply rooted in Afghanistans tribal society yet operate with the  
sophistication of a criminal jet set. Some live in fortified rural  
mansions, defended by anti-aircraft guns and gangs of heavily armed  
clansmen.

Many strike deals during the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi  
Arabia. "The Hajj is a good place to do business, we believe," said  
one Western anti-drugs official.

Every year the drug lords effortlessly export 4 000 tonnes of opium  
across Afghanistans borders, plugging into the Turkish, Iranian,  
Pakistani and Russian gangs that refine the drug into heroin for sale  
in Europe. But their strongest connections are at home. Allegations  
of drug links have persistently dogged some of Afghanistans most  
powerful figures, including several governors, ministers and the  
presidents brother, Walid Karzai. At least 17 of the 249 newly  
elected parliamentarians are smugglers, said analyst Andrew Wilder.

But the most serious charges hover over General Muhammad Daud, the  
Deputy Interior Minister for Counter Narcotics. A senior drugs  
official said he was "99% sure" that Daud had a stake in the trade he  
was supposed to be dismantling. "He frustrates counter-narcotics law  
enforcement when it suits him," said the official, who spoke on  
condition of anonymity.

"He moves competent officials from their jobs, locks cases up and  
generally ensures that nobody he is associated with will get arrested  
for drugs crime."

Daud has denied the allegations.

Undercover Afghan policemen have tried to infiltrate the smuggling  
rings, the same diplomat said, but failed to net any big fishc.

The drug lords funnel their -profits into construction in Kabul,  
where mansions and glass-fronted office blocks are springing up, and  
to Dubai, where US and British anti-drug specialists are cooperating  
with local authorities to stem the flow of laundered money.

The daunting scale of the drugs war can be best appreciated in  
Helmand, the remote southern province that is the worlds busiest  
opium smuggling route. At night high-speed convoys laden with  
narcotics race across the hard-packed desert towards the border with  
Pakistan. The frontier is effectively controlled by the Baluch, a  
tribe with long experience of smuggling that regards the British- 
demarcated border as a technicality. The main smugglers den is in  
Baramcha, a rough-and-tumble village along the unmanned border. From  
Baramcha, about two-thirds of the contraband is spirited south  
towards Karachi or the more secluded Makran coast. Another third  
moves west by road into Iran. The final destination, after being  
purified into heroin, is often Britain.

The smugglers have been fortified by an informal alliance with the  
Taliban. Britain hopes to break their stranglehold on Helmand with a  
deployment of more than 3 000 British troops that starts next month.

Paratroopers will mount a week-long mission to Baramcha, said  
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley.

The fledgling Afghan forces are also trying to apply pressure. Last  
Monday the Afghan Special Narcotics Force, a British-trained elite  
para-military squad, raided Baramcha. Some small-scale smugglers, one  
Western official said, were angry that Taliban militants did not keep  
their promise to defend them.

Western efforts are also focused on overhauling the Afghan justice- 
system. A new counter-narcotics law was approved last December and a  
special drugs court has been set up.

But even when drug criminals are prosecuted, they frequently bribe  
their way to freedom. Britain is helping to fund a new drugs wing at  
Pul-i-Charki prison outside Kabul, which is due to open later this  
year. But anti-narcotic officials are only moderately optimistic it  
will be filled. "Afghanistan is a tough place to do business," said  
one. "We all want stuff to happen yesterday, but everyone knows its  
not going to happen like that."
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MAP posted-by: Jackl