How the Taliban crushed the CIA's heroin bonanza in Afghanistan
William Van Wagenen | The Taliban has not once, but twice eradicated Afghanistan's poppy cultivation, the world's largest source of heroin. Despite western accusations, it has never been The Taliban behind the Afghan drug industry, but only ever the US and its allies, with billions in profits breezily laundered through the global financial system. | In the aftermath of the chaotic US and UK withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir warned in the Washington Post of the dangers of “ignoring one important consequence of the Taliban takeover: the coming boom in Afghanistan’s narcotics trade.” Mir then boldly predicted that, “in the next few years, a flood of drugs from Afghanistan may become a bigger threat than terrorism.” This projection of an international drug trade boom seemed plausible, considering the longstanding accusations that the Taliban funded their two-decade insurgency against the occupying forces by controlling opium production. In fact, it was believed that 95 percent of heroin used in Britain originated from Afghan opium. ● [W]estern displeasure towards the Taliban's efforts to dismantle the global heroin trade may seem perplexing at first glance. However, a closer examination of events in Afghanistan reveals a different perspective. Under the guise of the “War on Terror,” the 2001 US and UK invasion was driven in part by the desire to restore the heroin trade, which the Taliban had abruptly terminated just a year earlier. The western powers sought to reestablish the lucrative flow of billions of dollars that the heroin trade provided to their financial systems. In fact, “For 20 years, America essentially ran a narco-state in Afghanistan.”
■ Opium poppy harvest in Afghanistan at record high in 2014
■ Record levels of Heroin enters world market from Afghanistan
■ NATO helping boost Afghan heroin production: Russia
■ Over 20 Tons of [CIA's] Heroin Seized in Afghanistan
■ Connecting the Dots: Afghan Heroin, NATO, Azerbaijan Hub & Cargo Business
■ Afghan drugs: Opium price rises by 133%
■ Afghan opium poppy cultivation jumps