KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban’s Ministry of Interior has reported the destruction of about 200 acres of poppy cultivation fields in several provinces in recent days.
In a social media post, dated Tuesday, March 5, the ministry said that its anti-narcotics police have undertaken several operations to destroy poppy cultivation fields in many provinces including Helmand, Uruzgan, Kandahar, Farah, and Nangarhar.
According to the statement, the Taliban have destroyed 150 acres of poppy cultivation fields only in five districts of southern Helmand province in recent days. Helmand has for years been the epicenter of Afghanistan’s drug economy and the operational headquarters of the Taliban’s insurgency before their return to power.
The ministry says that more than 30 acres of fields in Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces, eight acres in Nangarhar, and some in Farah have been cleared from poppy cultivation.
In April 2022, Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree strictly prohibiting the cultivation of poppy, the primary source of opium used in the production of heroin. “Anyone violating the ban would have their field destroyed and be penalized according to Sharia law.”
Since that time, both the Kabul regime and the United Nations have consistently reported a significant decline in drug cultivation in Afghanistan.
In a report released last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicated over 95% reduction in opium cultivation in Afghanistan and its supply, dropping from 6,200 tons in 2022 to only 333 tons in 2023.
The UN report says that Afghanistan no longer holds the title of top global opiate supplier, ceding it to Myanmar which produces around 1,190 tons of opium.
Regional countries, however, say that they have not observed any decline in the volume of drug trafficking from Afghanistan.
Earlier today, Iskandar Momeni, the Secretary-General of Iran’s Drug Control Headquarters, said that the volume of synthetic drugs flowing from Afghanistan into his country has dramatically increased.
According to the Iranian news agency ISNA, the Iranian authority has said that he has not observed any decline in drug trafficking from Afghanistan to his country.
Yesterday, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported the seizure of 1.230 kilograms of Hashish in Iran’s Sistan and Balochistan province, which shares a border with Afghanistan’s Nimruz province.
According to Iranian news sources, one smuggler was also arrested along with the shipment.
Last month, Tajikistan also said that opioids like heroin and opium, along with Afghan-made methamphetamine, continue to be smuggled into the country from Afghanistan.
A Tajikistan Presidential Drug Control Agency (DCA) official told the Russian News Agency, TASS, that Tajikistan has not received any information regarding counter-narcotics efforts being undertaken by the Taliban.
