US Troops High on Afghan Heroin

$37M project facilitates opium smuggling into Tajikistan

(NEWSER) - A US-built bridge linking Afghanistan and Tajikistan that cost taxpayers $37 million has greatly benefited exporters of Afghan opium, McClatchy reports. The bridge over the Panj river was supposed to facilitate commerce between the two nations, but the surging flow of opium across Afghanistan’s northern border threatens to turn Tajikistan—still weakened from 5 years of civil war in the 1990s—into a narco-state. More»

Hundreds of tons of chemicals seized

(NEWSER) - The UN has been quietly striking a major blow against the Taliban with a widely successful international attack on its heroin trade, Bloomberg reports. The campaign has seized several hundred tons of acetic anhydride bound for Afghanistan. Without the chemical, the Taliban can’t convert its poppy, which sells for about $100 per kilo, into heroin, which fetches about $3,500 per kilo. More»

Poppy crop jumps 34% over last year

(NEWSER) - Afghanistan's opium production has soared over the last year and the country now supplies 93% of the world's opiates. Most of the poppies are grown along the country's southern border with Pakistan, where the insurgency is strong, security is weak, and the Taliban continues to use its drug profits to buy guns and keep itself running, reports the BBC. More»

Diverse revenue streams defy crackdown efforts

(NEWSER) - The Taliban is thriving financially, despite the US’ best efforts to clamp down on its cash flow, thanks to a sophisticated collection of revenue streams including foreign donations, criminal activities, and drug trade profits. “I don’t believe we can significantly alter their effectiveness by cutting off their money right now,” one House Intelligence Committee member tells the New York Times. “It’s just bigger and more complex than we can effectively stop.” More»

(NEWSER) - Afghanistan’s booming opium industry has hooked entire families on drugs, forcing them to sell land, livestock, and daughters to pay for their addiction, the AP reports. Some 200,000 Afghans are strung out on heroin or opium—50,000 more than in the US—as addiction moves from granddads down to toddlers in close-knit villages. “I take the food from this child to pay for my opium," says Beg, an addict. "He just stays hungry." More»