PAKISTAN MAKES HUGE HEROIN HAUL

Pakistani security forces have seized nearly a ton of heroin with a street
value of more than $50m - one of the world's largest-ever hauls of the
drug. The raid outside the town of Turbat near the Iranian border in
Baluchistan Province sparked a gun battle which left one trafficker dead
and another wounded, Reuters reported.

Agents found 630 kg (1,386 pounds) of pure heroin and 250 kg of morphine,
which they believe originated in Afghanistan.

Four alleged smugglers, who were using camels to transport the drugs, have
been arrested.

"It appears to be the first large quantity of heroin seized with origins in
Afghanistan," one officer told the Associated Press. Another said it could
be the biggest seizure of pure heroin in Pakistan's history. Correspondents
say the drugs haul is a strong indication that large-scale heroin
production has resumed in Afghanistan. The country was the world's biggest
producer of the drug until the Taleban authorities destroyed all poppy
fields in areas under their control two years ago. The fundamentalist
regime collapsed in December after intense US bombing.

Afghan origins Poppy production flourishes in the "Golden Crescent", which
takes in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.

Pakistan was a major heroin-producing country until 1998 when, with US
backing, the anti-narcotics force clamped down on poppy farmers in the
country's north-western tribal areas.

The United Nations declared the country poppy-free in 2000. Pakistan has an
estimated two million heroin addicts, more than any other country in the world.

The United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) estimates
that Afghanistan produced 3,276 tonnes of opium, out of a worldwide total
of 4,691 tonnes in 2000.

Heroin is synthesised from morphine, one of the main constituents of the
sap of papaver somniferum - the opium poppy.