The New War On Afghan Heroin

By Elaine Shannon

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is launching an urgent new initiative to confront the exploding Afghan heroin trade, which officials fear will generate millions of dollars for al-Qaeda-linked groups. Code-named Operation Containment, the DEA effort will open offices in Kabul and the Uzbek capital of Tashkent to monitor the bustling northern smuggling route to Russia. The agency's offices in Turkey are being expanded to intensify monitoring of heroin traffic to Western Europe. Stateside, FBI officials have established new narco-terrorism squads in New York City and other field offices, and are expanding domestic investigations into drug rings with links to al-Qaeda, Hizballah and other terrorist groups. Operation Containment is a response to recent intelligence reports that next spring's Afghan poppy harvest, which was just planted, will be at least as big as this year's newsmaking haul and may match the record 3,656-metric-ton harvest of 2000. That year Afghan growers, backed by the Taliban, cornered as much as 80% of the world heroin market. Afghan warlords are once again the dominant players in the world market, and some, U.S. officials say, are closely allied with Jihadist fanatics determined to undermine the weak Kabul government and mount new attacks on the U.S., Israel and the West. --By Elaine Shannon