‘Drug kingpin serves as Kabul counternarcotics head for 7 years’

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Interior (MoI) on Thursday said police had arrested the counternarcotics director for capital Kabul along with five other officers on drug smuggling charges.

MoI spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told a press conference here that the Kabul counternarcotics director, Mian Ahmad Ahmadi, was among six drug smugglers who had been arrested.

“This drug kingpin has been spreading narcotics all over Kabul city and has been collecting money from small distributers in the city,” he said.

He said Ahmadi had been under police chase for several days and was recently arrested in Salang district of Parwan province when he was trying to escape from Kabul to northern region and then to central Asia.

Rahimi said five others complicit in drug smuggling including Maj. Allahdad, deputy counternarcotics director, Faridullah, in charge of analysis and evaluation of counternarcotics, Abdul Rahman, operations team commander of the office, Lamar in charge of the office’s detection and Ajmal, in charge of drug detection of fifth police district, were also arrested.

Primary cases of the detainees have been referred to judiciary organs, he said.

Rahimi said 44 target operations had been launched against narcotics smugglers in the last one month, during which 223,841 kilograms of drugs were seized.

“During the last one month, 371 people involved in murder, bullying, robbery and kidnapping have been arrested in Kabul city; 1,773 others involved in different crimes were arrested from across the country during this period,” he said.

He said 188 operations were launched against militants across the country and as a result, 615 rebels were killed and 366 others wounded.

Mds/ma