Opium Trade (AFGHAN-3)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022 New York Times 2022/04/03 Taliban Outlaw Opium Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan. By Safiullah Padshah and Thomas Gibbons- Neff https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/world/asia/taliban-opium-poppy- afghanistan.html#:~:text=April%203%2C%202022%20KABUL%2C%20Afghanistan%20%E2%80%94%20The%20Taliban ,drought%20and%20economic%20crisis%20have%20gripped%20the%20country. KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban announced on Sunday that cultivating opium poppy in Afghanistan was banned, a move that will have far-reaching consequences for the many farmers who have turned to the illicit crop as a brutal drought and economic crisis have gripped the country. Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi, the prime minister’s administrative deputy, read the official decree to local and international media Foreign Policy 2022/03/31 The New Geopolitics of the Taliban’s Opium Economy Afghanistan’s narcotics trade is booming under fresh leadership. By Maysam Behravesh https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/31/the-geopolitics-of-the-talibans-opium-economy/ 2021 DW dot com 2021/04/09 Could the Taliban form an alliance with Mexico's drug cartels? Anabel Hernandez https://www.dw.com/en/could-the-taliban-form-an-alliance-with-mexicos-drug-cartels/a-59086206 Excerpt: As the Taliban take control of Afghanistan, they will further tighten their grip on opium poppy cultivation. This in turn will have an impact on the global drugs trade and in particular Mexico's powerful cartels. 2019 BBC 2019/04/25 How the US military's opium war in Afghanistan was lost. By Justin Rowlatt https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55048147 Excerpt: pium is woven deeply into the fabric of the conflict in Afghanistan, now the longest war in American history. The profits from the heroin it produces are used to fund the Taliban, as well as terrorist groups like the so- called Islamic State and Al Qaeda. And heroin also drives the rampant corruption that is so corrosive to civil society in Afghanistan. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55048147 2017 Brookings dot edu 2017/11/21 Afghanistan’s opium production is through the roof—why Washington shouldn’t overreact. Vanda Felbab-Brown https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2017/11/21/afghanistans-opium-production-is-through-the-roof- why-washington-shouldnt-overreact/ 2011 Insight Crime dot org 2011/01/04 'Mexican Cartels Buying Drugs in Afghanistan' https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/mexican-cartels-buying-drugs-in-afghanistan/ Excerpt: A noted Mexican crime analyst and scholar says that the Sinaloa Cartel is buying heroin and precursor chemicals in Afghanistan, in collaboration with Turkish and Indian criminal groups. Edgardo Buscaglia, an organized crime expert who has taught at the ITAM University in Mexico, said in an interview with El Universal that his fieldwork in Afghanistan indicates that the Sinaloa Cartel does regular business with Asian criminal groups. He described the cartel as operating increasingly like a multinational company, in which intermediaries in Afghanistan and Turkey outsource the shipping and distribution of heroin to the Mexicans. Using import-export companies as a front, Sinaloan operatives work with middlemen in Afghanistan and Turkey to move heroin to the Western market. The Mexicans then handle the distribution of the drug to U.S. cities like New York and Chicago, Buscaglia said. Updates: 2021/09/20 PAGE STARTED--Afghanistan Opium

Topics include: Taliban-Mexico connection; billion dollar business for Afghanistan- Taliban; connection to Iran and from there trade to Europe and elsewhere; Taliban stopping it on one hand, but recent booms on other; • Articles o The New Geopolitics of the Taliban’s Opium Economy Afghanistan’s narcotics trade is booming under fresh leadership. Foreign Policy-2022/03/1 o Taliban Outlaw Opium Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan.-New York Times-2022/04/03 o Could the Taliban form an alliance with Mexico’s drug cartles? DW-2021/04/09 o 'Mexican Cartels Buying Drugs in Afghanistan' o How the US military's opium war in Afghanistan was lost. BBC-2019/04/25