BRITAIN IS BRACED FOR INFLUX OF CUT-PRICE HEROIN

Britain is bracing itself for a flood of cheap heroin after intelligence
sources warned that farmers in Afghanistan would produce a bumper crop of
opium in the next few months.

Agents in Afghanistan have told the British authorities to expect a harvest
of about 4,600 tons of raw opium, The Independent has learnt.

Customs and Excise, the security services, MI6 and MI5, and the police are
concerned at the likely consequences of a huge opium crop because
Afghanistan is the main supplier of heroin to Britain.

Officers are already struggling to contain heroin coming to the United
Kingdom . The drug is used by about 300,000 people and worth an estimated
UKP2.3bn a year.

Drug traffickers in Britain have been cashing in on the conflict in
Afghanistan by charging a "war premium" they say is necessary because
supplies are scarce.

But new intelligence suggests that drug barons in Afghanistan are about to
obtain a huge boost to their stocks. With the defeat of the Taliban regime,
who banned the cultivation of opium poppies, growers in Afghanistan have
been returning to the cash harvest.

A law enforcement source said: "The replanting in Afghanistan is of
sufficient order that it could produce a second bumper crop similar to the
1998-99 harvest." He said farmers had been returning to growing poppies
since the middle of November when they realised the Taliban were likely to
be overthrown.

About 10kg of opium is used to produce 1kg of heroin. With the cut in
supplies from Afghanistan, the price of a kilogram of raw opium rose from
$30 (UKP21) in 2000, before it was banned by the Taliban, to $700 (UKP490)
in September last year.