Ghani instructs MoI to arrest drug lords

Following the publication of a news documentary in connection with the free sale of drugs in Kabul by Ariananews, President Ghani instructed the Ministry of Interior (MoI) to arrest all drug dealers.

Ariananews exclusive report evidences that drugs are freely and without any fear of security forces sale to addicts in several parts of the capital, Kabul.

“As President Ghani instructed us, we also ordered police to present daily report on drug trafficking like reporting insecurity each day,” Norulhaq Ulomi, the interior minister said.

Afghanistan is one of the world’s major production centers for opium and its derivatives.

It is part of the so-called golden crescent extending from Iran to Pakistan and Afghanistan, an area that the agents said accounts for more than half of the world’s opium output.

Afghanistan is the source of about 90% of the world’s opium. Its farmers dedicated more than 500,000 acres to the opium poppy’s cultivation in 2013, up 36% from 2012. Much of that crop is sold to the Taliban, who pocket an estimated $100 million annually to fund anti-government forces.

“The drug trade undermines the Afghan government because it funds the insurgency, fuels corruption, and distorts the economy.”

Meanwhile, Afghan representatives stress over this phenomenon, warning if the cultivation and selling of this phenomenon not taken up, it will plagued the most of community one day.

While 2013 saw peak poppy production in Afghanistan, this year could yield an even bigger crop. That’s because Afghan forces dedicated to anti-narcotic tasks had to be diverted to help secure the recent election, which coincided with the poppy-growing and eradication season.

 It’s a perverse twist: efforts to nurture democracy helped the poppies flourish, which eventually could doom whatever kind of democracy the U.S. bequeathes Afghanistan at year’s end.

Reported by Ahamd Farshad Saleh