Kabul, Oct 19 (IANS) Police burned nearly one tonne of illegal drugs in the western Afghan province of Farah on Sunday, provincial police spokesman Kalimullah Nangyal said on Monday.
The narcotics, including 955 kg of opium-type drugs, hashish and 36 kg of methamphetamine, were seized during a series of operations recently and publicly burned on Sunday, the official said, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Police also arrested a suspected drug smuggler, who would be handed over to the judiciary after the completion of a preliminary investigation, the official added.
On October 16, the provincial Directorate of Information and Culture said that counter-narcotics police seized 136 kg of opium-type drugs and detained three suspected smugglers in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province.
The contraband was recovered from two cars in Sangin district on October 15, the statement said, adding that the three suspects had been detained for investigation.
The suspected drug smugglers would be handed over to the judiciary after the completion of a preliminary investigation, the statement added.
The Afghan government has intensified its crackdown on illegal drugs.
On October 13, a provincial police spokesman said that Afghan police incinerated 161 tons of assorted illicit narcotics uncovered during a year-long counter-narcotics campaign in western Herat province.
The illicit substances were recovered in a series of counter-narcotics operations carried out in Herat city, the provincial capital, and various districts of the province, said Sayed Massoud Hussaini, the provincial police spokesman.
Without revealing the number of individuals arrested for storing or trafficking the seized narcotics, Hussaini emphasised that police would not allow anyone to smuggle, cultivate, or process illicit drugs anywhere in Afghanistan.
In the broader anti-narcotics effort, police also destroyed 10 drug-processing laboratories and discovered a large quantity of materials used to manufacture heroin in neighbouring Ghor province, officials reported on Wednesday.
The Afghan government has banned drug trafficking and production and opium poppy cultivation, pledging to sustain the campaign until the war-ravaged nation, long known for its poppy fields, becomes a drug-free country.
–IANS
akl/