Afghan police demolish around 600 acres poppy farms, arrest 8 drug smugglers-Xinhua

Afghan police demolish around 600 acres poppy farms, arrest 8 drug smugglers

Source: Xinhua| 2023-06-01 18:16:15|Editor: huaxia

KABUL, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police have destroyed around 600 acres of poppy farms and arrested eight persons on the charge of involvement in drug business in three out of Afghanistan's 34 provinces over the past week, said a statement of the country's Ministry of Interior Affairs released here Thursday.

In the campaign against illicit drugs, the counter-narcotics police have destroyed a total of 592 acres of poppy farms and hashish in Badakhshan, Ghor and Parwan provinces over the past week, the statement added.

Afghan authorities have intensified crackdown on illicit drugs and those involved in the underground business as security personnel arrested eight alleged drug smugglers in Kabul and Herat provinces on Wednesday, police said.

In similar operations against illicit crops, police had also destroyed 432 acres of poppy farms in five more provinces couple of weeks ago.

Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Afghan caretaker administration in a decree issued in April last year, banned cultivation of illegal crops including poppy, its processing to drug and drug trafficking.

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