US analyst claims Taliban is making moves to boost narcotics trade

Kabul – After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, its economy has suffered. However, the Taliban is preparing to promote the cultivation of opium poppy and narcotics trade. In the 1990s, the Taliban was trading in large quantities of narcotics in Afghanistan. Analysts point out that the Taliban is once again moving in the same direction. They also reminded that the economic and social system of Afghanistan had collapsed due to narcotics.

On the one hand, the Taliban is announcing strict actions against the drug trade under its rule. Some Taliban leaders have warned that drug trade and consumption will not be tolerated. US analyst David Mansfield warned that, in reality, the Taliban’s journey has begun in a different direction.

The illicit opium trade is linked to Afghanistan’s economy and its turmoil. The world’s heroin trade is heavily dependent on opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. Along with this opium, methamphetamine, popularly known as Meth, is the other narcotic produced in Afghanistan. Both these drugs are smuggled in large quantities into the United States, Latin America, and European countries.

It has been revealed from time to time that the Afghans who cultivate these drugs are affiliated with the Taliban. Analysts say the Taliban are making most of their money through this. But now, the Taliban have claimed that they do not have any connection with the drug trade. But in 2020, the Taliban extorted $20 million in ransom money from drug traffickers, according to US analyst Mansfield.

Mansfield also reminded that the Taliban made huge profits from drug trafficking two decades ago during its rule in Afghanistan. But no government in Afghanistan, which replaced the Taliban after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, had shown the courage to ban poppy cultivation.

Although the Taliban announced a ban on opium consumption a month ago, it is claimed that the Taliban can’t implement it. Some influential groups in Afghanistan, affiliated with the Taliban, are involved in the cultivation and trade of these drugs. They heavily fund the Taliban; it is claimed that the Taliban have been fighting the United States with the same money for the last two decades.