Authorities say International Terrorism and Drug Trafficking Closely Linked
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Authorities say international terrorism and drug trafficking are closely linked. To help us understand the tie between the two, we are joined this morning by Sandeep Chawla. He is head of the research — head of research, rather, for the United Nations International Drug Control Program. And we thank you very much for your time this morning, Mr. Chawla. Can you explain to us exactly what the — how much money the Taliban is actually making off of any opium or heroin sales? I have seen and heard so many different numbers quoted. SANDEEP CHAWLA, UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DRUG CONTROL PROGRAM: It’s very difficult to establish authoritative numbers on a subject like this simply because we don’t know the clear extent of the crop over last year. But to give you one idea of estimating it: For the year 2000, the total farm gate (ph) value, meaning the prices paid to farmers in Afghanistan for the opium crop, was about $90 million U.S. dollars. The assumption is that the Taliban imposed a 10 percent agricultural tax on this, and beyond that in some areas are able to levy an additional 20 percent tax on it. So the figures for last year were, at the most, about $30 million … More : edition.cnn.com |