IN AFGHANISTAN: DEA HELPS CIA IN HUNT FOR OPIUM CACHES

Small Stores Are Found; Huge Stockpiles Elusive

WASHINGTON -- The Drug Enforcement Administration is providing the CIA with
field drug-test kits to track down what are believed to be huge opium
stockpiles in Afghanistan.

The DEA also is passing information to the CIA and U.S. military about
possible locations of the stockpiles, once considered an important source of
finances for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, said Steven Casteel, the DEA's
assistant administrator for intelligence.

Casteel said Tuesday that drug seizures so far have been in the range of 40
pounds to 100 pounds, "none of the monstrous stockpiles we expected."

Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, was the world's leading producer of opium
in 2000, with more than two-thirds of the market. Most of that opium and the
heroin derived from it were sold in Europe and Asia. U.S. drug dealers get
most of their heroin from Latin America, mainly Colombia.

Afghan opium production was virtually wiped out after the Taliban, citing
Islamic principals, banned production in July 2000.

Despite the ban, U.S. officials say the Taliban continued to profit from the
opium trade. They say the Taliban had stockpiled enough opium to meet market
demand for two years, and they contend the ban was merely an attempt to
raise prices and boost the Taliban's international prestige.

Now that the Taliban have been driven from power, drug officials hope to
find the stockpiles and discourage new opium production. The United Front,
which now controls much of Afghanistan, has done little in the past to fight
opium production and trade.

The DEA hopes some of the opium stockpiles will be discovered when top
leaders of the Taliban and the Al Qaeda terrorist group are captured,
Casteel said.