KABUL: Above 16,000 kilograms of drugs have been seized across the country during the last three months and 275 people, including 13 women, arrested in connection with the seizures.
Criminal Justice Task Force (CJTF) spokesman Khalid Moahid told a press conference here that the drugs seized included 13,000 tablet-K.
He said 82 of the detainees wanted smuggle narcotics via the Hamid Karzai International Airport to India, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Moahid added 47 vehicles, five motorcycles, 283 mobile phones and 21 weapons used by drug smugglers were also seized during the period.
He said 1.1 million afghanis and $11,000 in cash seized from drug smugglers were handed over to the Afghanistan Central Bank.
The CJTF’s primary court sentenced 264 people, including a foreigner, a woman and 15 government officers, from 1.5 years to 20 years in jail over their involvement in drug deals, he said.
He said most of the cases happened in Kabul (93 cases) and Nangarhar (25 cases) during the last three months.
The official said 217 people including 14 women and an Iranian national were detained in connection with 159 drug cases in the period.
Afghanistan remains the world’s leading drugs producing.
Despite billions of US dollars spending by the international community to fight drugs in Afghanistan, poppy cultivation in the country has increased by several times since 2001.
