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CNN Live Saturday

Anti-Narcotics Task Force Seizes Drugs in Afghanistan

Aired January 19, 2002 - 22:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The war on terrorism isn't the only one being fought in and around Afghanistan. The war on drugs is also being waged there. An anti-narcotics task force in Pakistan makes a major seizure, drugs they say were being moved by Afghan smugglers.

CNN's Ash-Har Quraishi has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ASH-HAR QURAISHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): United Nations drug officials say this is the largest seizure of heroin and morphine ever. Over 1400 pounds of heroin and some 550 pounds of morphine were seized, after a gun battle in western Pakistan, near the Iranian border earlier this month.

The smugglers were traveling by camel from Afghanistan through Pakistan to Iran, when they were ambushed by Pakistan's anti-narcotics force. One smuggler was killed, one wounded and six others capture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Intelligence forces also concern that bulk movement of narcotics from Afghanistan that subsided during war is now again picking up.

QURAISHI: Shackled and handcuffed, the four detainees were put on display for journalists. If convicted, they could face the death penalty under Pakistani law. U.N. officials estimate the street value of this bust at over half a billion dollars.

The origin of the drugs? The poppy fields of Afghanistan, where farmers have relied on the crop since the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. But former Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar ordered a halt to poppy cultivation.

(on camera): Authorities say that while there was a dramatic decrease in the cultivation of poppy of the last year because of a strict end by the Taliban, the smuggling of opium and heroin continued because of leftover stockpiles.

BERNARD FRAHI, U.N. DRUG CONTROL PROGRAM: Today there is no doubt that huge quantities of heroin are coming from stockpiles. And since they are coming in huge quantities demonstrates that traffickers are removing the stocks a new secure place, which is Afghanistan today, the battle carried about the coalition army to some other place where maybe to be secure. QURAISHI (voice-over): Another large crop is expected in the spring. With smugglers using camels and more remote routes, detection of these caravans has become increasingly difficult. Still, both Pakistan's anti-narcotics force and the U.N. say the fear of missing out on the drug trade has smugglers on the move. Something they say they will take advantage of in the coming weeks.

Ash-Har Quraishi, CNN, on the border with Iran in Turba, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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