Kabul, Oct 9 (IANS): Police seized more than 600 kg of opium-type illegal drugs from an ambulance in the northern Afghan province of Takhar, provincial police spokesman Naqibullah Masroor said on Friday.
In an unusual incident, counter-narcotics police stopped and searched a private ambulance early Thursday, recovering 614 kg of opium, the official said.
The ambulance was coming from neighbouring Badakhshan province and was disguised as a vehicle carrying a patient when police intercepted it in Taluqan, the provincial capital, and discovered the narcotics, Masroor said, without providing further details, Xinhua News Agency reported.
In a separate incident, police recently reported seizing and publicly burning 321 kg of illegal drugs, including 250 kg of opium, in the eastern province of Panjshir.
On September 30, Afghan authorities set fire to more than three tonnes of illegal drugs in Afghanistan’s northern Takhar province, provincial police spokesman Naqibullah Masroor said.
The contraband, including three tons of opium, 198 kg of hashish and 175 stimulant tablets locally known as “Tablet K,” was publicly burned in the presence of local government officials and residents.
According to the official, the narcotics had been seized during a series of operations across the province over the past couple of months.
The counter-narcotics police will not allow anyone to produce illegal drugs or traffic them out of the province, the official said, warning that stern action would be taken against anyone who violates the law.
On September 20, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior Affairs said that Afghan counter-narcotics police have arrested 60 individuals suspected of involvement in the illicit drug trade and seized 29 kg of narcotics in operations across 12 provinces.
The suspects were detained during a series of separate operations carried out in and around the provinces of Nimroz, Balkh, Nangarhar, Kapisa, Laghman, Kunduz, Samangan, Parwan, Badakhshan, Khost, Panjshir and Farah, the ministry said.
The seizures included various types of illicit narcotics, the statement said, without providing further details on the drugs confiscated or the identities of those arrested.
Afghanistan’s authorities have stepped up a nationwide campaign against the narcotics trade, targeting drug traffickers, cultivators and production networks as part of broader efforts to curb the country’s illicit drug economy.
