Kabul: Afghan police incinerated 161 tons of assorted illicit narcotics uncovered during a year-long counter-narcotics campaign in western Herat province, a provincial police spokesman said.
The illicit substances were recovered in a series of counter-narcotics operations carried out in Herat city, the provincial capital, and various districts of the province, said Sayed Massoud Hussaini, the provincial police spokesman.
Without revealing the number of individuals arrested for storing or trafficking the seized narcotics, Hussaini emphasised that police would not allow anyone to smuggle, cultivate, or process illicit drugs anywhere in Afghanistan, Xinhua News Agency reported.
In the broader anti-narcotics effort, police also destroyed 10 drug-processing laboratories and discovered a large quantity of materials used to manufacture heroin in neighboring Ghor province, officials reported on Wednesday.
The Afghan government has banned drug trafficking and production and opium poppy cultivation, pledging to sustain the campaign until the war-ravaged nation, long known for its poppy fields, becomes a drug-free country.
On October 9, provincial police spokesman Naqibullah Masroor said that police seized more than 600 kg of opium-type illegal drugs from an ambulance in the northern Afghan province of Takhar.
In an unusual incident, counter-narcotics police stopped and searched a private ambulance early Thursday, recovering 614 kg of opium, the official said.
The ambulance was coming from neighbouring Badakhshan province and was disguised as a vehicle carrying a patient when police intercepted it in Taluqan, the provincial capital, and discovered the narcotics, Masroor said, without providing further details.
In a separate incident, police reported seizing and publicly burning 321 kg of illegal drugs, including 250 kg of opium, in the eastern province of Panjshir.
On September 30, Afghan authorities set fire to more than three tonnes of illegal drugs in Afghanistan’s northern Takhar province, provincial police spokesman Naqibullah Masroor said.
The contraband, including three tons of opium, 198 kg of hashish and 175 stimulant tablets locally known as “Tablet K,” was publicly burned in the presence of local government officials and residents.
According to the official, the narcotics had been seized during a series of operations across the province over the past couple of months.
The counter-narcotics police will not allow anyone to produce illegal drugs or traffic them out of the province, the official said, warning that stern action would be taken against anyone who violates the law.
(IANS)
