£50m Drugs Raid 'Will Starve Taliban Of Cash'

[Nostalgia]

British forces have seized heroin and drug-making chemicals with an estimated value of more than £50m during raids in Afghanistan.

Troops carried out raids in the strategically vital Sangin Valley, in Helmand Province, during Operation Diesel earlier this month.

More than 200 British soldiers were involved, most of them Royal Marines from 3 Commando Brigade, in a complex operation centred on Sapwan Qualeh.

Defence Secretary John Hutton praised the bravery of the "dedicated and professional" troops who carried out the operation.

He added: "The seizure of £50m worth of narcotics will starve the Taliban of crucial funding, preventing the proliferation of drugs and terror on the UK's streets."

Combat teams were airlifted at night into three drop zones after other British forces distracted the Taliban by feigning a move into an area to the north of the real targets.

Advancing on foot across rugged terrain, they assaulted several compounds thought to have been Taliban strongholds.

Many enemy troops fled in surprise, abandoning weapons - including Ak47 assault rifles and PKM machine guns - and drugs equipment.

"We were just 200m away and had just climbed onto the high ground when an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) buzzed over our heads, fired by a guy who just came out of an alleyway - fortunately it was a blind and didn't explode," said Captain Olly Osbourne of 45 Commando.

"All the guys opened up on him in response. Another firing position with a PKM heavy machine gun was firing too and we guided an Apache helicopter in to attack with its 30mm cannon."

By daylight, British forces, who had been supported by Afghan soldiers, discovered they had captured four drugs processing factories.

Scores of sacks of raw opium were collected, together with large quantities of chemicals used to turn it into heroin for sale in the West.

Ammonium chloride, acetic anhydride, sodium chloride and calcium hydroxide were found in amounts sufficient for the production of heroin with an estimated end street value of more than £50m.

"It's been a good day," said a Royal Marine who found and destroyed 450kg of narcotics.

The British military said 20 enemy fighters were killed and four captured. There were no casualties among friendly forces.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090218/...o-3fd0ae9.html

[Nostalgia]

cui bono?

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) heroin production estimates for the past ten years reflect substantial changes in the primary source areas. Heroin production in Southeast Asia declined dramatically, while heroin production in Southwest Asia expanded. The decrease in heroin production from Myanmar is the result of several years of unfavorable growing conditions and new government policies of forced eradication. Afghan heroin production increased during the same timeframe, with a notable decrease in 2001 purportedly as a result of the Taliban’s fatwa (religious ban) against heroin production. Afghanistan now produces over 90 percent of the world’s opium.

http://www.interpol.int/Public/Drugs/heroin/default.asp