KABUL, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police incinerated 161 tons of assorted illicit narcotics uncovered during a year-long counter-narcotics campaign in western Herat province, a provincial police spokesman said late Tuesday.
The illicit substances were recovered in a series of counter-narcotics operations carried out in Herat city, the provincial capital, and various districts of the province, said Sayed Massoud Hussaini, the provincial police spokesman.
Without revealing the number of individuals arrested for storing or trafficking the seized narcotics, Hussaini emphasized that police would not allow anyone to smuggle, cultivate, or process illicit drugs anywhere in Afghanistan.
In the broader anti-narcotics effort, police also destroyed 10 drug-processing laboratories and discovered a large quantity of materials used to manufacture heroin in neighboring Ghor province, officials reported on Wednesday.
The Afghan government has banned drug trafficking and production and opium poppy cultivation, pledging to sustain the campaign until the war-ravaged nation, long known for its poppy fields, becomes a drug-free country. ■
