Afghanistan: Addicted To Heroin

Steve Kroft Reports On Afghanistan's Booming Heroin Trade

(CBS) 

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai, who is considered honest and well intentioned, outlawed the cultivation and trafficking of opium three years ago, but has neither the power nor the prosecutors to enforce it.

“It is the top priority. Not one of the top — the top priority now,” says Karzai.

“There have been lots of reports that many of the people in the provinces, many of the former commanders, have been involved with drug trafficking in the past. And some believe still continue to be involved in drug trafficking,” Kroft says.

Karzai agrees. “A lot of people are still involved in drug trafficking," he says. "Maybe even there are people in the government who may be involved in drug trafficking. Drug trafficking, drug cultivation, poppy cultivation, was a major way of life in this country. Now that the country’s going back toward stability, now that we have a better hope for tomorrow, that we have hope for tomorrow, the Afghan people have begun to distance themselves. Slowly, slowly.”

Things are moving much too slowly for the country’s top law enforcement officer, interior minister Ali Amad Jalali, who resigned last month after complaining about the lack of progress in stemming the opium trade, and bringing government officials involved in it to justice.

Last June, his elite Afghan anti-drug force, trained and assisted by the British, raided the offices of Sher Muhammed Akhundzada, the Governor of Helmand Province, another warlord widely suspected of being involved in the drug trade.

They seized nine and a half tons on opium, but the investigation went nowhere. Governor Akhunzada said the drugs were not his but that they had been seized by police and were just being stored at his headquarters.

He showed 60 Minutes a locker now loaded with another two and a half tons of opium. “This is opium that we confiscated. We have to keep the confiscated opium in a safe place. And this is where we keep it,” says Akhunzada, through a translator.

Not everyone bought that argument, especially the chief counter-narcotics officer for Helmand Province. When the investigation stalled, Abdul Samad Haqqani went on Radio Liberty, which is funded by the U.S. Congress, and denounced the governor as a major narcotics trafficker.

Haqqani has since disappeared and President Karzai says he would look into the matter.

As for the tons of opium in the Governor’s administrative office, Karzai wasn’t the least bit surprised.

“It’s almost half of the economy," he says. "Why would it surprise me if there was poppy found in a governor’s office? Or administrative offices? Whether they were confiscated or whether they belonged to somebody. In both cases, it doesn’t surprise me.”

Asked how his government would deal with the governor amid these allegations, Karzai says the governor asked to be removed.

“This governor of Helmand, he has come to me a number of times to say that he is tired of working in Helmand precisely because of these allegations," Karzai says. "He says, ‘Well remove me' and we have not removed him. Because right now, under the circumstances, any replacement would find it difficult to continue the fight against terrorism the way he’s doing it there — in that province and at the borders.”

Karzai went on to say that no investigation was needed and that the governor could be removed and assigned to other government work.

"We don't need an investigation on him," Karzai says. "We will remove him from his place and bring him to do some other government work. Maybe he should become a senator or something."

Antonio Maria Costa, director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, says he has pleaded with Karzai to do something about senior officials and governors involved in the drug business.

“These people who have been involved, senior officials and governors who were involved in the drug economy should be removed,” says Costa. "Removed from office and possibly removed from the country."

Costa says the need to fight terrorism and defeat the insurgency should not be used as an excuse to ignore the opium trade. “I think it is the responsibility of the Afghan government and the foreign powers assisting it to fight both narcotics and the insurgency. I will say that fighting one is equal to fighting the other.”

The British, who have overall responsibility for counter narcotics in Afghanistan, and the Americans, have limited their role to assisting the Karzai government in training anti-drug units and providing occasional logistical support for their missions to confiscate opium and destroy drug labs. So far they have destroyed 150 labs.

The American military has no direct role in counter narcotics. Its responsibility is fighting terrorism and providing security and stability. If U.S. troops come across opium they can take action but it is not part of their mission.

Robert Charles says the U.S. military has limited resources to commit to the effort and feels that aggressive action could disrupt the flow of intelligence. “It is easy to say, ‘We will get to this issue in time’ the way we get to other social issues. But we don’t have time.”

And Charles doesn’t think it is just a threat to the mission. “I think it is a threat to the Democracy. Why is it a threat to democracy? First, it has a potential for public corruption. Second, it funds the violent elements in society. Finally, it sends a signal that the rule of law doesn’t matter.”