Afghan Drug Trade; Cartels, Trafficking Route, and Government Complicity
Photo: Collected
Several related economic activities are involved in Afghanistan drug trafficking. Cartels maintain a symbiotic relationship with the Taliban by giving farmers advances to plant ephedra and opium while providing the financial assistance necessary to keep the jihadist proto-state alive.
These cartels use Pakistani sources to facilitate the acquisition of chemicals required to produce drugs. In addition, diverse nationalities are used as hostages until their cartels can afford to pay for the delivery of the drugs, and terrorist groups offer security services in exchange for payment, said Hamid Pakteen, reported by Afghan Diaspora Network.
The rise of heroin production can be traced back to 1979 when the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate of Pakistan supported jihadist groups to generate funds from drug trafficking.
“General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s regime fostered an ecosystem of government protection for heroin dealers, officials profiting from the trade, and significant political influence of heroin syndicates within the government. The subsequent institutionalization of these cartels occurred during the first Taliban emirate, with cartels enforcing their control and resorting to extreme measures such as threatening farmers who refused to cultivate poppies. Trafficking routes extended to Europe, passing through Iran, eastern Turkey, and Central Asia to Russia.”
The drug trade from Afghanistan to Pakistan remains unchecked, mainly due to weak investigation procedures and lenient court rulings that allow drug smugglers to evade significant punishment. Afghanistan had become a significant supplier of crystal meth since 2017 when drug traffickers realized that the native ephedra herb could produce ephedrine, a key ingredient in meth production.
Although the Taliban announced a ban on poppy cultivation, use, and trafficking during its second administration, the situation is not the same in practice. The cultivation of poppies is in full swing because there is no other source of income. Because the illegal opium trade continues to be a significant source of income for the cash-strapped Taliban administration, it has been reluctant to enforce its embargo. Between $1.8 billion and $2.7 billion, or 12 to 14 per cent, of Afghanistan’s GDP was attributed to the production of opium in 2021.
Opium output in Afghanistan has increased by 34% despite the cultivation ban; it can be seen, Pakeen claimed.
The clandestine operations of drug smugglers, spanning across the mountains of Balochistan province along the Pak-Afghan border, have a long and intricate history that dates back to the colonial era. These smuggling convoys skillfully navigated through British India’s North West Frontier, evading the scrutiny of three empires, as they transported a wide array of contraband such as liquor, opium, automobile parts, sewing machines, and silk.
The modern heirs to these networks are dumping a tidal surge of drugs produced in Afghanistan into the Indian Ocean.
Recent reports of substantial drugs demonstrate the magnitude of this problem captured in the Gulf of Oman and Indian naval operations. Narcotics carrying Afghan cartel logos have been seen arriving in genuine container shipments at European ports like Felixstowe, Antwerp, and Rotterdam. Similar to their predecessors from colonial times, smugglers are still the main source of income for underprivileged areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
These smugglers continue to have significant ties to Pakistani Army institutions, allowing them to operate freely and covertly, as the Diaspora network quoted Pakteen.
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Afghanistan operations, Charles Cogan, later told journalist Loretta Nepoleoni that the United States sacrificed its war on drugs to win the Cold War. The hundreds of thousands of young lives still being destroyed by methamphetamines and heroin show how tainted that victory was, The Print reported.
