India seizes $2.7bn of heroin from Afghanistan at port

Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by Weirdzebra
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Nearly three tonnes of heroin with a street value of $2.7bn (£2bn) from Afghanistan have been seized from a western Indian port in a major bust, officials said.

Two Indians were arrested after the heroin, which was kept in two containers marked as carrying talc, was found by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at Mundra Port in the western state of Gujarat, the government agency said.

The consignment – with one container carrying nearly 2,000kg of heroin and another holding nearly 1,000kg – originated from Afghanistan and was shipped from a port in Iran to Gujarat, the DRI said.

“Searches have been conducted in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Chennai, Gandhidham and Mandvi in Gujarat,” the agency said in a statement.

It added that the shipment was estimated to be worth 200bn rupees ($2.7bn).

The investigation also allegedly uncovered the involvement of Afghan nationals, the DRI said, although no one else has been arrested so far.

Afghanistan is the world’s biggest producer of heroin, supplying between 80-90% of global output.

Heroin production has boomed in Afghanistan in recent years, helping fund the Taliban which returned to power in August.

Efforts by the US and international community to control the country’s heroin trade over many years have been largely unsuccessful.

At the same time, the Taliban’s return to power has placed more strain on the country’s already dire economic situation.

The economy was hugely reliant international donors that had a stake in the previous government. Foreign aid and development assistance made up more than 42% of the Afghanistan’s GDP last year, and funded three-quarters of public expenditure.

But many of those donors are unwilling to offer support to the Taliban, making the economic outlook even more uncertain.

emceemcee on September 21st, 2021 at 06:25 UTC »

I really wish we'd get an approximation of the wholesale price, the money that's actually going to the Taliban, not just the extrapolated street value.

They always do this with drugs. Cops find a pound of weed, take the street price of $20/gram, multiply it by the grams in a pound, and suddenly it's an almost a $10,000 weed bust. In reality they've got only a couple thousand dollars of deadly cannabis off the streets.

When it's drugs that are going to finance a terrible regime it would be more illuminating to tell us how much money we are truly depriving them of then to simply brag.

ainsley- on September 21st, 2021 at 05:05 UTC »

Holy that's like 10% of entire GDP

ravise7en on September 21st, 2021 at 03:57 UTC »

Hmm. Afghanistan doesn't have any money. USA has frozen all their foreign assets. Their only export is opium. Which is the nearest market big enough to consume enough opium to keep them afloat? I think India should get ready for drug wars in the next decade. Edits: Spelling errors.