TROOPS WILL TARGET DRUGS STOCKPILE

Downing Street Fears The Taliban Will Flood The West With Ukp20 Billion
Worth Of Heroin

American and British troops are to target a UKP20 billion stockpile of
opium and heroin which intelligence officials believe is about to be
released onto the world market by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban
authorities. Intelligence documents circulating in Downing Street say that
bin Laden and the Taliban will use money made from the trade to fund any
war against the West.

It is believed that there are up to 3,000 tonnes of opium in secret bunkers
across the north and west of Afghanistan. Such a large amount could be used
to manufacture up to 300 tonnes of heroin, enough to supply the British
drugs trade for 10 years.

Downing Street officials believe that bin Laden and his al Qaeda
organisation are closely connected to a string of drug gangs which use
supply routes through Iran and Turkey into Europe and America. Nearly 90
per cent of the heroin sold in Britain is thought to come from Afghanistan.

Although refusing to go into specifics, Government sources said that the
destruction of the drugs trade was a 'long-held ambition' and that they
would be flexible in making it part of the 'war against terrorism'.

'We want to see an end to opium production in Afghanistan,' the Prime
Minister's official spokesman said.

It is believed that troops will focus on areas where the drugs are thought
to be stored around Jalalabad and the bin Laden camps of Darunta, Bhesud
and Khost. They will move against chemical factories which process the
drugs and farms which grow poppies as part of the military operation.

Security sources said that all of these could also be targeted in a series
of air strikes when the military campaign, Operation Enduring Freedom, is
launched against the country.

Last week it was reported that the Taliban had lifted their ban on the
planting of poppy fields, so that the manufacture of opium and heroin could
begin again. This is the first evidence that bin Laden and the Taliban
authorities already have a major stockpile of drugs.

'Assessments suggest that those stocks are now being disposed of because of
the threat of war and the need to raise money,' the Prime Minister's
official spokesman said. 'Bin Laden has been closely involved in the Afghan
drugs trade and has encouraged major traffickers in the past to flood
Europe and the US with heroin as a means of undermining and destabilising.
There are strong grounds for believing that [he has] large stockpiles of
drugs himself.

'The Taliban in the past have used money from drugs to fund military
action. Bin Laden is actively involved in the Afghan drugs trade and sees
these drugs as a means of undermining the West.'

Although the Afghan border with Iran is officially closed there are a
myriad of routes between the two countries which are almost impossible to
close down.

Britain has now agreed to help Iran, a long-time political enemy, in the
fight against drugs. During his visit to the country last week Jack Straw,
the Foreign Secretary, announced that the Government would give a
UKP650,000 grant to President Mohamed Khatami to help in
counter-trafficking measures.

Downing Street played down fears that the release of such a huge amount of
heroin by the Taliban would flood the Western market with cheap heroin.

'Street prices of heroin in Britain are unlikely to be affected,' the
spokesman said. 'The price didn't alter during the ban. We don't expect
there to be a flood of cheap heroin now.' He said that government policies
were in place to stop the drugs entering Britain.

Under questioning, the official spokesman said that he could not divulge
any evidence which the Government had about the drugs. 'We cannot reveal
our sources but it is reliable evidence gained over many years.'

Diplomatic sources said that an attack on the heroin trade in Afghanistan
held political difficulties for the Government. Officials admit that up to
five per cent of the heroin held in the country was under the control of
the Northern Alliance which America hopes will back any future military action.