THE TALIBAN CONTROL OF HEROIN DRUG PRODUCTIONS IN AFGHANISTAN , AS THE TALIBAN RELIES MORE AND MORE ON DRUGS.THE OPIUM PRODUCTION HAS GROWN, THE TALIBAN HAS ASSUMED A BIGGER ROLE IN IT.DERIVING MUCH OF ITS INCOME FROM DRUG TRADE!

The Taliban which banned poppy cultivation when it ruled Afghanistan  now appears to wield significant control over the war-torn country’s heroin production line, providing insurgents with billions of dollars.The southern province of Afghanistan, is not just the larger producer of opium but also the most restive province in the country. The armed insurgents continue to create problems for the government forces in the province.Drug smugglers in connivance with armed opposition groups are engaged in fierce armed clashes.

From poppy to heroin, Taliban moves into Afghan drug production. The Taliban which banned poppy cultivation when it ruled Afghanistan  now appears to wield significant control over the war-torn country’s heroin production line, providing insurgents with billions of dollars.In 2016 Afghanistan, which produces 80 percent of the world’s opium, made around 4,800 tonnes of the drug bringing in revenues of three billion dollars.The Taliban has long taxed poppy-growing farmers to fund their years-long insurgency, but Western officials are concerned it is now running its own factories, refining the lucrative crop into morphine and heroin for exporting abroad.The Taliban need more money to run their war machine and buy guns, that is why they have taken control of drug factories.“More than 90 percent of all heroin consumed in the US is of Mexican origin. But in Canada more than 90 percent of the heroin consumed is of Afghan origin.Taliban, drug lords await $770m opium bonanza,Afghanistan is a hot spot for the Taliban, it’s the reason we are currently in a war over there. However, the main funding for the Taliban comes from the opium they grow in Afghanistan. They sell these drugs to private groups and other terrorist organizations. This money then goes to fund their battle against our troops. Currently the United States government is pursuing the possibility of intervening and spraying down the areas that grow the drugs with a chemical to kill them. They did this same thing to an extent in Columbia South America. The fact that drugs are funding the Taliban is an undisputed fact and needs to be addressed; however, is this route the one we should be taking on the issue? To answer this question we need to look at what happened when we did this before in Columbia. When we did begin the eradication attempts on Columbia, things went smoothly for a time, until we started noticing the aftereffects. Several things happened, firstly allot of the Columbian economy was based on the illegal trade of the narcotics. When we started killing the drugs their economy began to tumble causing economic crisis. Secondly the farmers of the drugs simply either replanted in another unknown hidden location, or they moved to a different country. This caused the drug crisis to proliferate. So, if we apply what we have seen in Columbia to Afghanistan, it’s clear that there must be another better option for conquering the Taliban and the drugs they grow.Apparently unable to defeat the Afghan government with conventional tactics alone, Taliban and terrorist groups operating in the country now try to sway the hearts and minds of the local population in their favor, seeking to drive a wedge between civilians and security forces.Everything they harvest is duly processed inside the country. They receive more revenues if they process it before it has left the country.Obviously we are dealing with very loose figures, but drug trafficking amounts to billions of dollars every year from which the Taliban is taking a substantial percentage.Poppies, which are cheap and easy to grow, make up half of Afghanistan’s entire agricultural output.Farmers are paid about $163 for a kilo of the black sap the raw opium that oozes out of poppy seed pods when they are slit with a knife.Once it is refined into heroin, the Taliban sells it in regional markets for between $2,300 and $3,500 a kilo. By the time it reaches Europe it wholesales for $45,000, according to a Western expert who is advising Afghan anti-narcotics forces and asked not to be named.The first step before it becomes heroin, such as acid anhydride, points to an escalation in Taliban drug activity.Sixty-six tonnes of the chemicals were seized in all of 2016, while 50 tonnes were impounded in just the first six months of 2017.

How drugs finance Taliban’s war in Afghanistan,how the Afghan heroin trade is fuelling the Taliban insurgency.Without any doubt, there are local, regional and even international mafia groups involved in drug business inside Afghanistan.If they manage to crack down on local mafia gangs.

Drugs for guns:Taliban leaders, in other words, are a lot richer than they used to be just a few years ago and the source of their sudden influx of wealth is no secret in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The Taliban are more involved than ever in systematically promoting, financing, organizing, and protecting the drug trade.Drugs are ultimately providing the money, food, weapons, and suicide bombers to the insurgency and the good life to Taliban leaders in Quetta, Karachi, and across Afghanistan.”The drug trade, of course, has been an important part of Afghanistan’s economy for a long time exploited by former Northern Alliance warlords, corrupt government officials, and other major traffickers. Local Taliban leaders have long benefited as well. But now the Taliban’s central leadership has decided it wants in. And drug trafficking has become such a pervasive part of the organization’s mission that it raises an alarming prospect.Opium fields in Afghanistan are the main sources of revenue to armed insurgents and source of sustenance to poor farmers. Notwithstanding the efforts by government and its international partners to eradicate the menace, it has only increased over the years.Afghanistan is a victim of drug war spearheaded by drug mafias at the behest of armed opposition groups.The drug mafia, according to government officials, poses biggest threat to the country. “If drug production is stopped, the situation will also improve and it would be easier for the government to identify those who was leading the war.Drugs are used to fund the war against government. “It is one of the main sources of revenue for armed insurgents and there is no doubt about that.Who are the drug mafia?Experts believe the drug mafia in Afghanistan makes millions of USD every year by smuggling narcotic drugs, especially in the western provinces of Afghanistan, bordering Pakistan and Iran.The  farmers get only 2-3 percent of the income generated from drugs and the rest goes to local and regional drug mafia groups who are connected to the international drug mafia industry.Without any doubt, there are local, regional and even international mafia groups involved in drug business inside Afghanistan.Majority of Taliban commanders, especially in Helmand province, are also into drug smuggling.Almost 98 percent Taliban commanders are also the hardcore drug smugglers.The drug smugglers, are supported by powerful people, and that is precisely why the smugglers have evaded arrest.It was during the cold war that the US first intervened in Afghanistan, backing Muslim militants who were fighting to expel the Soviet Red Army. In December 1979, the Soviets occupied Kabul in order to shore up their failing client regime; Washington, still wounded by the fall of Saigon four years earlier, decided to give Moscow its “own Vietnam” by backing the Islamic resistance. For the next 10 years, the CIA would provide the mujahideen guerrillas with an estimated $3bn in arms. These funds, along with an expanding opium harvest, would sustain the Afghan resistance for the decade it would take to force a Soviet withdrawal. Its opium production surged from around 180 tonnes in 2001 to more than 3,000 tonnes a year after the invasion, and to more than 8,000 by 2007. Every spring, the opium harvest fills the Taliban’s coffers once again, funding wages for a new crop of guerrilla fighters.At each stage in its tragic, tumultuous history over the past 40 years – the covert war of the 1980s, the civil war of the 90s and its post-2001 occupation – opium has played a central role in shaping the country’s destiny. In one of history’s bitter ironies, Afghanistan’s unique ecology converged with American military technology to transform this remote, landlocked nation into the world’s first true narco-state – a country where illicit drugs dominate the economy, define political choices and determine the fate of foreign interventions.The objective was to shut down a criminal activity, and where possible make arrests, collect evidence and effect a prosecution; these were actions designed to deliver a legal outcome and to strengthen the capacity of the Afghan government to enforce the law.To justify such a significant shift in responsibilities and to allow for the targeting and killing of those that had previously been viewed as the responsibility of law enforcement, there was a need to rewrite the script, and link the drugs trade and the Taliban and press that the two were inseparable; Taliban funding was the means by which this would be done.

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