Around 1,500 people have been arrested nationwide in connection with 107 tons of drugs over the past five months in Afghanistan, reported Maj. Gen. Abdul Khalil Bakhtyari, secretary counter-narcotics at the Ministry of Interior on Monday. Earlier in May, Gen. Bakhtyari told a press conference in Kabul that three drug producing factories had been destroyed in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar province while in over 600 raids conducted by security personnel in different parts of the country, 700 smugglers were arrested. The detainees had included four international smugglers whose names were on the UN black list. The cases of these alleged smugglers had been transferred to the Criminal Justice Task Force (CJTF) after primary investigation. The financial value of the drug recovered from smugglers accounted for above $37 million, while $226,000 cash was also recovered from the detainees.
The Secretary for Counter-Narcotics at the Ministry of Interior had urged President Ashraf Ghani to allow the counter-narcotics forces to participate in the already launched nation-wide offensive codenamed ‘Nusrat’ in order to be effectively involved in their mission alongside other security forces. The 107 tons of drugs being recovered in the past five years along with the arrest of almost 1500 drug smugglers has been seen as a positive development in Afghanistan’s fight against the spread of narcotics in the country.
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