TALIBAN SAID BEHIND AFGHAN DRUG SURGE

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Taliban government is likely behind a sudden
increase in Afghan opium that is making its way into Europe and Asia, a
U.S. official said.

U.N. counternarcotics officials have suggested that the surge in opium may
be the result of Afghan traffickers, acting on their own, trying to get
their stockpiles out of the country before any U.S. reprisals for the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

But the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, "I think it is
very much in control of the Taliban," the Islamic militia that governs most
of Afghanistan.

Production of opium, the raw material for heroin, has been an important
source of revenue for the Taliban. With the United States threatening
military action against the Taliban for harboring Osama Bin-Laden, the
leading suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks, some officials believe the Taliban
may be unloading stockpiles as a quick source of cash.

A House Government Reform subcommittee has asked Drug Enforcement
Administration head Asa Richardson to address those concerns at a hearing
Thursday.

In the late 1990s, Afghanistan was the world's leading producer of opium,
at its peak supplying more than 70 percent of the world market. But little
entered the United States, where most of the heroin is from Latin America.

Last year, the Taliban ordered a halt to opium cultivation, citing
religious principles. International observers confirmed production had been
almost wiped out in Taliban-held areas, with the little remaining opium
being cultivated on land held by the opposition northern alliance.

But U.S. and U.N. officials suspect that large opium stockpiles remain from
previous years.

Pino Arlacchi, the U.N.'s top anti-drug official, told The Associated Press
last week that the supplies likely were in the hands of "criminal groups,
who are as powerful as the Taliban and as powerful as anyone else in
Afghanistan."

The U.S. official, however, said it is doubtful the Taliban has severed its
ties to the drug trade. He said the Taliban government has made money -- up
to $50 million a year -- both by taxing traffickers and getting directly
involved in the drug trade.

He said bin Laden is also believed to be involved in the opium trade, with
his network providing protection to laboratories and stockpiles. For bin
Laden, opium provides more of an opportunity to build coalitions than
finance terrorism, he said