KABUL – Around 1,500 people have been arrested across Afghanistan in connection with 107 tons of drugs during the past five months, an official said on Monday.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Khalil Bakhtyari, secretary counter-narcotics at the Ministry of Interior, told an award-giving ceremony for martial arts players in Kabul, said counter-narcotics officials had big achievements during the past five months.
He said the detainees possessed 107 tons of drugs, and they were arrested during 1,300 operations.
Around 525 raids took place in Kabul alone where 725 smugglers were detained with four tons of different types of drugs, he added.
Bakhtyari added that at present, nearly 30 percent of prisoners in the country’s jails were drug smugglers, citing statistics with the prisons department.
He called drug addicts a major problem and called on citizens to assist police in dealing with the phenomenon.
Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Janan Barikzai, first deputy interior minister, told the ceremony that smugglers were attempting to distribute some plants to farmers for producing drugs, but the people and the government would not allow them to succeed.
In a recent report, UN highlighted that the cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan, the world’s main source of heroin, has risen to its third-highest level in more than 20 years, as the Taliban insurgency gains ground. Afghanistan’s area under opium-poppy cultivation has increased 63% since 2016, rising to 810,505 acres, while its potential opium production increased 87% to an estimated 9,000 tons — both records for the country despite years of anti-narcotics efforts.
The Afghan government has shifted its focus to combating anti-government elements in densely-populated areas at the expense of rural areas, which may have also allowed cultivation to increase, according to the UNODC.
Among the main factors driving the increase are corruption, lack of government control and security, and challenges to the rule of law, like political instability. Local issues, like a lack of job opportunities, low-quality education, and limited access to markets and financial services, also help push farmers toward opium cultivation.
