Afghanistan Times
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By Akhtar M.Nikzad-KABUL: The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has arrested two alleged drug smugglers with 99 kilograms of heroin in Kabul, said official on Wednesday.
“The arrested men wanted to enter Kabul with 99 kilograms of heroin but were arrested by counternarcotics police (CNP) late on Tuesday,” head of counternarcotics operations directorate of the MoI, Khalil Bakhtiar told reporters here.
He said the men planned to distribute the heroin to retailer sellers of drugs in Kabul.
About recent counternarcotics operations, Bakhtiar the counternarcotics police have seized around 12 tons of different kinds of narcotics and detained 323 suspects across the country in past two months.
“Nearly 209,000 hectares of land was cultivated poppy in the country in 2013 while the figure increased to 224,000 hectares of land in 2014. It reveals that poppy cultivation has increased up to seven percent in 2014 and drugs process and production has mounted by 16 percent,” he said.
Terming drug smuggling as one of the key factors for insecurity and instability in the country, he said terrorists gain at least $400 million through poppy cultivation and drug smugglers ever year.
“Poppy is cultivated and smuggled in insecure areas where insurgents take benefit of the illegal business and use it in improving their subversive activities,” he stated. “The MoI is determined to conduct a widespread operation against drug smugglers and poppy cultivators in different part of the country in order to destroy poppy cultivated lands and drugs processing factories,” he said.
He said lack of CNP personnel was a main hurdle for their activities, adding that more forces are needed to end the illegal business.
According to the MoI, nearly three million people are, directly and indirectly, involved smuggling and production of narcotics throughout the country.
