2.1m afs drugs seized, 359 arrested in a month

KABUL (Pajhwok): Police arrested 359 alleged drug smugglers, including international smugglers, during the past one month across the country and recovered drugs and acid worth 2.1 million, an official said Saturday.

Lt. Gen. Abdul Khalil Bakhtyar, deputy head of the Counternarcotics Department, told reporters here that the recovered drugs included 69 kilograms of heroin and 25 kilograms of opium.

He said in addition police confiscated seven tons of acid which could be used in making narcotics.

He said among the detainees were international smugglers also wanted by the United Nations.

Billions of dollars have been spent on anti-narcotics campaigns in Afghanistan, but the cultivation and production of drugs remains high in 2001.

Around 3.6 million people or 12 percent of the country’s population are addicted to drugs.

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