KARACHI - Drug smugglers call it the golden route: from Afghanistan into Pakistan and then into eastern Iran, it's the trail that takes Afghanistan's abundant opium, and its derivative, heroin, to Western markets.And all along the way there is strong political compromise in
which officials turn a blind eye to the players visibly plying the notorious route, and at each stage the commissions get bigger. In Afghanistan, and also enriches not only the United States-friendly Afghan warlords but also elements of the Northern Alliance, the US's key ally in the country. Afghanistan is estimated to produce 87% of the world's supply of opium (4,519 tons this season, down 2% from 2004 ), with nearly half of the country's US$4.5 billion economy coming from opium cultivation and trafficking. Under the latter years of the Taliban before their ouster in the US-led invasion of late 2001, opium production continued apace, but in the immediate post-invasion period warlords blocked the smuggling routes.The international smugglers were thus forced to make new dealswith the warlords to allow for the safe transportation of the narcotic. By the end of 2002, the drug underworld further upgraded the deals under which opium was smuggled into Pakistan, then back into Afghanistan and on to Europe. A senior US Pentagon official who has been involved in US-supported low-intensity war operations and insurgencies since the Vietnam war and involved in the reorganization of the Northern Alliance [1] in Afghanistan to effectively pitch them against the Taliban, admitted to Asia Times Online that the drug economy in Afghanistan was more powerful than the official one. He said that the only thing that linked pro-Taliban and pro-Northern Alliance warlords was the black economy, from which money trickled down to the anti-US resistance - which has intensified lately, with 1,100 people killed in the past six months. The golden arteriesInformation obtained from the US Drug Enforcement Agency in Washington reveals trafficking groups based in Pakistan smuggling multi-ton shipments of drugs to Europe and the US. These regional drug traffickers represent a diverse ethnic and tribal cross-section. Couriers take some of the drugs out of Pakistan through its international airports and the port of Karachi; the remainder goes overland along Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast to Iran and on to Turkey, or up into the Central Asian states. The general route for smuggling Afghan-produced opiates from Pakistan goes overland from Pakistan's Balochistan province across the border into Iran, then passes through the northwestern region, which is inhabited by Kurds, and finally into laboratories in Turkey, where the opium is processed. The shipments from Pakistan may be broken down into smaller shipments once in Iran. Iran is both a transit country and a destination for opium products. Iranian domestic production is believed to be quite low and unable to supply domestic demand. Opiates not intended for the Iranian market transit Iran to Turkey, where the morphine base is processed into heroin. Heroin and hashish are delivered to buyers located in Turkey, who then ship the drugs to the international market, primarily Europe. Inside the underworld Near the coastal belt of Makran along the Arabian sea in Balochistan province lies the small town Mand, from where Pakistan's federal minister for special education, Zubaida Jalal, hails. But for the local people, the name in the region is Imam Deen. Imam Deen's influence spreads north, west, east and south of the coastal highway lanes from Gadani (near Karachi) all the way along the coast. Imam Deen is number one on the wanted list of Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force, which registered cases against him in 2002 and 2003, which were then referred to the Narcotics Suppression Court in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. But he never appeared and the court declared him an absconder. Nevertheless, he is often seen in the corridors of power in Quetta, and with the province's chief minister, shuttling between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Asia Times Online investigations reveal that Imam Deen lives without fear in Mand, which is informally the heart of the "golden route". Drugs not destined for the laboratories of Turkey end up in the Mand area, where they are refined and sent back to Afghanistan en route to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, where Afghan drug lords hand their consignments over to the international underworld. These are generally inferior quality drugs for the local market. The better quality opium is smuggled to European destinations. In the north of Afghanistan, the drugs generally pass through the hands of Uzbek warlord Sibghatullah in Mazar-i- Sharif. They made a new bridge called (friendly bridge) on the border of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.It reopened on 9 December 2001. Via that bridge they export 90% of opium to Uzbekistan and whole Europe.That is the great work of Hamid Karzai to feed Europe.
which officials turn a blind eye to the players visibly plying the notorious route, and at each stage the commissions get bigger. In Afghanistan, and also enriches not only the United States-friendly Afghan warlords but also elements of the Northern Alliance, the US's key ally in the country. Afghanistan is estimated to produce 87% of the world's supply of opium (4,519 tons this season, down 2% from 2004 ), with nearly half of the country's US$4.5 billion economy coming from opium cultivation and trafficking. Under the latter years of the Taliban before their ouster in the US-led invasion of late 2001, opium production continued apace, but in the immediate post-invasion period warlords blocked the smuggling routes.The international smugglers were thus forced to make new dealswith the warlords to allow for the safe transportation of the narcotic. By the end of 2002, the drug underworld further upgraded the deals under which opium was smuggled into Pakistan, then back into Afghanistan and on to Europe. A senior US Pentagon official who has been involved in US-supported low-intensity war operations and insurgencies since the Vietnam war and involved in the reorganization of the Northern Alliance [1] in Afghanistan to effectively pitch them against the Taliban, admitted to Asia Times Online that the drug economy in Afghanistan was more powerful than the official one. He said that the only thing that linked pro-Taliban and pro-Northern Alliance warlords was the black economy, from which money trickled down to the anti-US resistance - which has intensified lately, with 1,100 people killed in the past six months. The golden arteriesInformation obtained from the US Drug Enforcement Agency in Washington reveals trafficking groups based in Pakistan smuggling multi-ton shipments of drugs to Europe and the US. These regional drug traffickers represent a diverse ethnic and tribal cross-section. Couriers take some of the drugs out of Pakistan through its international airports and the port of Karachi; the remainder goes overland along Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast to Iran and on to Turkey, or up into the Central Asian states. The general route for smuggling Afghan-produced opiates from Pakistan goes overland from Pakistan's Balochistan province across the border into Iran, then passes through the northwestern region, which is inhabited by Kurds, and finally into laboratories in Turkey, where the opium is processed. The shipments from Pakistan may be broken down into smaller shipments once in Iran. Iran is both a transit country and a destination for opium products. Iranian domestic production is believed to be quite low and unable to supply domestic demand. Opiates not intended for the Iranian market transit Iran to Turkey, where the morphine base is processed into heroin. Heroin and hashish are delivered to buyers located in Turkey, who then ship the drugs to the international market, primarily Europe. Inside the underworld Near the coastal belt of Makran along the Arabian sea in Balochistan province lies the small town Mand, from where Pakistan's federal minister for special education, Zubaida Jalal, hails. But for the local people, the name in the region is Imam Deen. Imam Deen's influence spreads north, west, east and south of the coastal highway lanes from Gadani (near Karachi) all the way along the coast. Imam Deen is number one on the wanted list of Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force, which registered cases against him in 2002 and 2003, which were then referred to the Narcotics Suppression Court in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. But he never appeared and the court declared him an absconder. Nevertheless, he is often seen in the corridors of power in Quetta, and with the province's chief minister, shuttling between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Asia Times Online investigations reveal that Imam Deen lives without fear in Mand, which is informally the heart of the "golden route". Drugs not destined for the laboratories of Turkey end up in the Mand area, where they are refined and sent back to Afghanistan en route to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, where Afghan drug lords hand their consignments over to the international underworld. These are generally inferior quality drugs for the local market. The better quality opium is smuggled to European destinations. In the north of Afghanistan, the drugs generally pass through the hands of Uzbek warlord Sibghatullah in Mazar-i- Sharif. They made a new bridge called (friendly bridge) on the border of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.It reopened on 9 December 2001. Via that bridge they export 90% of opium to Uzbekistan and whole Europe.That is the great work of Hamid Karzai to feed Europe.
By : Feroz Nikzad
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