Afghan Taliban Awash in Heroin Cash, a Troubling Turn for War
Afghan Taliban Awash in Heroin Cash, a Troubling Turn for War
KABUL, Afghanistan — The labs themselves are simple, tucked into nondescript huts or caves: a couple-dozen empty barrels for mixing, sacks or gallon jugs of precursor chemicals, piles of firewood, a press machine, a generator and a water pump with a long hose to draw from a nearby well.
They are heroin refining operations, and the Afghan police and American Special Forces keep running into them all over Afghanistan this year. Officials and diplomats are increasingly worried that the labs’ proliferation is one of the most troubling turns yet in the long struggle to end the Taliban insurgency. (New York Times, 29.10.2017)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/29/world/asia/opium-heroin-afghanistan-taliban.html