TALIBAN SELLING DRUGS FOR ARMS

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The Taliban are selling off stocks of opium stored
in mosques amid a surge in exports of narcotics from Afghanistan and a
collapse in prices since the attacks on the U.S.

Businessmen in Kabul and international officials in Pakistan say there is
panic selling by dealers holding stockpiles of opium and hashish. The
Taliban have released hoards collected from farmers as an Islamic tax of 10
per cent on agricultural output, businessmen interviewed by phone in Kabul
said.

Prominent local commanders and mullahs are liquidating their drug stocks
for cash to pay for arms, wages and food supplies in anticipation of
American military action, they said.

Proof of huge fails in price can be found just outside Peshawar, where
heaps of opium cakes are openly on sale in Bara, a frontier market area
teeming with heavily armed Afridi tribesmen, beyond the tenuous reach of
Pakistani law and order.

"Soon after [the attacks] there was a lot of chaos in Afghanistan and a lot
of people began selling their stock and so much, much more is coming out
and the price has fallen," said Arshad Khan, 42, one of the dealers.

Since Sept.11, the price quoted by Khan for one kilogram of higher quality
opium has fallen from 47,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,160) to 28,000 rupees
($695). Prices for lower quality material have slumped as low as 6,000
rupees ($150) a kilo.

It is only five weeks since Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's supreme
leader, renewed a religious decree forbidding the cultivation of opium poppies.