Intelligence

TALIBAN SELL OFF HEROIN STOCKS

Heroin prices have dropped dramatically in northern Europe over the past
few weeks and law enforcement officials say this indicates that
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban have managed to sell vast quantities of the
narcotic recently. Swedish police say a gram of heroin has fallen to $50
against $100-120 in August. Afghanistan is the European market's main
supplier of heroin, but the Taliban in July last year outlawed cultivation
of the opium poppies from which the drug is derived.

The ban was lifted in early September. However, Afghanistan's vast
stockpiles of raw opium were not destroyed and the law enforcement
officials believe the Taliban--desperate for cash and under armed
assault--are tapping these reserves until a new poppy crop is ready for
harvest. In 1999 Afghanistan produced 4,600 tonnes of raw opium, or enough
to produce 460 tonnes of heroin. Most of that crop has been stored in
Taliban-controlled godowns in southern and eastern Afghanistan.