18.02.09 - Operation Diesel Seizes £50m of Heroin in Afghanistan скачать в хорошем качестве

18.02.09 - Operation Diesel Seizes £50m of Heroin in Afghanistan

Hundreds of British and Afghan troops have seized 50 million pounds worth of drugs in a major operation that also killed 20 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday. The haul, which included opium, chemicals and equipment capable of producing heroin with a final street value of over 55 million euros (70 million dollars), took place from February 6-11, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in London said. It left 20 Taliban fighters dead, with four others captured, the ministry said. More than 700 British Royal Marines and commandos, as well as Afghan soldiers, backed by helicopters raided four drug factories in Sangin Valley, Helmand province, as part of Operation Diesel. Afghanistan supplies 90 percent of the world's heroin, much of which emanates from Helmand, where the Taliban is waging a bloody insurgency against Western and Afghan security forces. Several districts are out of government control and involved in opium poppy cultivation, a highly lucrative trade for insurgents. British Defence Secretary John Hutton said the operation had cleared Taliban fighters from large areas of Helmand and deprived them of funding, "bringing security and governance to more of the province." As well as dismantling the drugs operations, the offensive resulted in the seizure of AK-47 assault rifles, PKM machine guns and rocket launchers, plus a motorbike modified for use in a suicide attack. "The links between the Taliban and the drugs trade are well proven and we know that the revenue from narcotics production directly funds the insurgency," said Brigadier Gordon Messenger, Commander Task Force Helmand. "Operation Diesel was a clinical precision strike, supported by strong intelligence, which has had a powerful disruptive effect on known insurgent and narcotics networks in the area. "The success of the operation is a significant boost to the Afghan authorities in their fight against the drugs trade." There are around 8,300 British soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), many of whom are based in Helmand. On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama approved the deployment of 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, saying they were needed "to stabilize a deteriorating situation." The new deployment will significantly build up the 38,000-strong US force already on the ground battling the growing insurgency. Sangin, a district with a population of around 50,000, is dominated by the Upper Sangin Valley, which the MoD describes as the "Taliban heartland." The troops seized 1,295 kilogrammes of wet opium, which would be worth six million pounds as heroin, as well as enough chemicals to produce heroin worth 50 million pounds. They also found vats for refining opium, presses and bags ready to be filled with the drugs.