Thread: Suspected Afghan drug smuggler arraigned in New York

Suspected Afghan drug smuggler arraigned in New York

Fri Oct 24, 7:57 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – An Afghan suspected of running a massive drug smuggling ring that funded the Taliban insurgency was arraigned in a New York court Friday, the US Justice Department announced.

Haji Juma Khan, 54, was charged with "conspiracy to distribute narcotics with intent to support a terrorist organization," the department said in a statement.

A US Justice Department official told AFP Khan was arrested while travelling to Indonesia from Dubai, but she would not say when.

Indonesian authorities barred him from entering the country and handed him over to US officials, the official said.

Khan is suspected of directing an organization that "arranged to sell morphine base, an opium derivative that can be processed into heroin, in quantities as large as 40 tons -- enough to supply the entire US heroin market for more than two years," the statement said, citing an indictment it said was unsealed Friday in New York.

Labs run by Khan's organization also produced and sold refined heroin in quantities of as much as 100 kilograms, or 220 pounds, and more, the indictment alleges.

Khan is accused of having directed the drug smuggling ring, based in the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, since "at least 1999," the statement said.

"The Taliban's terrorist insurgency has been funded in part by drug traffickers who provide financing to the Taliban in exchange for protection for their drug routes, production labs, and opium poppy fields," it said.

"Khan has supported the Taliban's efforts to forcibly remove the United States and its allies from Afghanistan by providing financial support in the form of drug proceeds," it said.

If he is found guilty, Khan could be sentenced from 20 years to life in prison.

Afghanistan produces around 90 percent of the world's opium, which is used to make heroin.

The United States said Friday it believes Afghanistan's opium cultivation and production declined steeply in 2008 after two straight years of record production.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081024/ts ... 1024235738

Khan is accused of having directed the drug smuggling ring, based in the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, since "at least 1999," the statement said.

The poppy fields could have been destroyed 5 years ago, but they were left to "produce". Why?