Kabul: Afghan counter-narcotics forces have confiscated 170 kg of opium poppy and apprehended two suspected smugglers in western Afghanistan’s Nimroz province, provincial police spokesman Gul Mohammad Qudrat announced on Sunday.
The seizure took place during a targeted operation in the Zanjer Sharqi area along the Zaranj-Delaram highway, the official said, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The Afghan government has intensified its nationwide campaign against illicit drugs, pledging to eradicate poppy cultivation and dismantle trafficking networks.
On November 4, the provincial police office said that police in eastern Afghanistan’s Ghazni province seized 225 kg of opium from a car.
The official said the contraband was hidden in secret compartments of the vehicle and was discovered during a routine search in Muqar district on November 3.
The driver of the car fled the scene, the official confirmed, adding that search operations are underway to locate and bring to justice the owner of the drugs.
In a similar anti-narcotics operation several days ago, police discovered and destroyed a drug processing lab in the eastern Paktia province.
On November 1, a local police officer said that Afghan counter-narcotics forces have eradicated 400 acres of illegal poppy farms in the northern Badakhshan province.
The operations targetted illicit crops on the outskirts of Baharak, Jurm, Shuhada and Darayem districts, according to Ehsanullah Kamgar, provincial police spokesman.
Kamgar said that security forces would not allow cultivation of poppy or any other prohibited crops in the province.
In April 2022, the Afghan government imposed a nationwide ban on the cultivation of illegal crops, including poppy and hashish.
Earlier in August, provincial police spokesman Ehsanullah Kamgar said that police had arrested a drug smuggler and discovered 92 kg of opium poppy in his possession in northern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province.
The alleged smuggler, according to the official, had hidden 92 kg of poppy in the cavities of a car and was attempting to take the contraband out of Badakhshan, but the police identified and arrested. Kamgar added that the arrested man, along with his car and the confiscated poppy, had been kept in police custody for investigation.
(IANS)
