FLOOD OF CHEAP AFGHAN HEROIN

AFGHAN farmers are ready to swamp world markets with heroin amid signs that
the Taleban has dropped its ban on opium growing.

The ban was imposed by Mullah Muhammad Omar last year, leaving many farmers
ruined. But the sudden halving of the price of raw opium to $250 a kg
suggests the decree has been reversed. Even if it remains in place,
desperate farmers are expected to resume planting next month while Taleban
security forces are engaged elsewhere.

One source confirmed last night: "There has definitely been a decrease in
the price of opium in Afghanistan in recent days. This would happen either
because people expect an increase in supply or a decrease in demand, and if
there is one thing from Afghanistan which is guaranteed to have an
international demand, it is opium."

Afghanistan produced 75 per cent of the worlds opium last year and Mullah
Omars ban was seen as one of the few attempts by a pariah regime to gain
credit with the international community. Its enforcement was ruthless and
efficient. UN figures show that Afghanistans opium production was 4,600
tonnes in 1999, but this is thought to have dropped to 100 tonnes this year.

The respite, however, may prove short-lived. One Western source said: "The
farmers have to decide by mid-October if they are going to plant. The more
we move into a campaign the more incentive they have to cultivate poppies."