Kabul: More than 80 percent of poppy is cultivated in the areas controlled by Taliban militants, who gain plenty of incomes from drug product and trade, interior ministry says.

Mohammad Hashem Ortaq, deputy interior minister for counter-narcotics, said Monday that police have launched 4,833 operations against drug traffickers since the beginning of 2019, during which, 5,620 smugglers including 89 government employees had been arrested.

“More than 80 per cent of lands under poppy cultivation are in the areas where Taliban have control. However, we managed to eradicate 702 hectares of the poppy lands,” Ortaq said.

The interior ministry data shows that 27 counter-narcotics police have been killed in confrontation with drug smugglers since the beginning of last year and another 70 officers have been wounded.

Ortaq said that 1,270 tons of different types of narcotics were seized, 105 heroin laboratories were destroyed, three warehouses and 25 factories of alcoholic beverages were also destroyed.

He said that drug traffickers suffered a great loss of around 155 million dollars.

http://www.afghanistantimes.af/over-80pc-of-poppy-cultivates-in-taliban-controlled-areas/