U.S. EXTRADITES ACCUSED DRUG DEALER FROM AFGHANISTAN

NEW YORK, Oct. 24 -- A Taliban-linked man who allegedly sought to
poison U.S. streets with millions of dollars of heroin in a deadly
"American jihad" has become the first person extradited from
Afghanistan to face federal charges, officials said Monday.

Drug Enforcement Administrator Karen P. Tandy said Baz Mohammad, one
of the world's "most wanted, most powerful and most dangerous" drug
kingpins, had helped finance the Taliban by selling opium since 1990.

"In return, the Taliban protected Mohammad's crops, his heroin labs,
his drug transportation labs and his associates," Tandy said after a
conspiracy indictment was unsealed accusing Mohammad of smuggling more
than $25 million of heroin into the United States and elsewhere.

Mohammad was arrested in Afghanistan in January and arrived in the
United States Friday, authorities said.

In his first appearance in court Monday, Mohammad said through an
interpreter, "I am innocent." He was ordered held without bail. His
lawyer declined to comment afterward.

According to the indictment, Mohammad told associates at his home in
Karachi, Pakistan, in 1990 that selling heroin was a form of jihad, or
Islamic struggle, because they were taking money from Americans while
giving them something that was killing them.

U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said drug dealers such as Mohammad
seek "to destabilize Afghanistan's emerging democracy, flood the
Western markets with heroin and use their profits to support the
Taliban and other terrorist groups."

The indictment alleged that Mohammad and co-defendant Bashir Ahmad
Rahmany had conspired since 1990 with others to violate narcotics
laws. Rahmany was arrested in New York in July and is awaiting trial.

If convicted, Mohammad and Rahmany face mandatory minimum sentences of
10 years and maximum terms of life in prison.