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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=400 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=400 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>Paragliding heroin smuggler shot down
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor
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FOR three years guards patrolling one of the world’s remotest borders have been tormented by a man who must rate as one of the world’s most enterprising smugglers.
At first they thought that the lone paraglider must be innocently enjoying his sport in an area where the wind conditions and topography are particularly suited to the sport. But the area is also renowned as a channel for the world’s heroin trade and the glider’s frequent cross-border trips soon aroused suspicion.
Yesterday, when he crossed the ranges that divide Afghanistan from Tajikistan, his canopy was brought crashing to earth in a hail of machinegun bullets. In the wreckage 18kg of heroin was discovered, although by the time the Tajik guards were able to retrieve it the smuggler had run off into the mountains.
Sabza Sarkorov, the deputy head of the Tajik border guards, said that the paraglider had probably been injured. An investigation is under way.
Afghanistan is still the world’s biggest producer of opium, the base for heroin. Despite numerous schemes by the Afghan Government and the international community to force or persuade the poppy farmers to choose alternative livelihoods, it remains the most lucrative crop.
Paragliding is a popular sport in Tajikistan, where the topography is similar to that of the Himalayas. But this is thought to be the first instance of a paraglider regularly transporting contraband.
So far this year Tajik guards have seized more than 800kg of heroin being brought in from Afghanistan. The Afghan anti-narcotics police, who are trained by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), have had a number of recent successes in seizing heroin. Afghan police operating in Kabul, trained by British customs officers, have raided heroin dumps.
However, with the opium business in Afghanistan still representing 60 per cent of the country’s economy, the shooting down of the paraglider and the recent heroin seizures are acknowledged to be small successes.
Eradication of the poppy fields has been ruled out because of the poverty it would cause among subsistence farmers. American and British specialists in Afghanistan are focusing their efforts on the smugglers and traffickers who make the real money from opium. The DEA and American special forces have been involved in a number of classified operations, one of which produced spectacular results four months ago: Haji Bashir Noorzai, the most wanted alleged drugs baron in Afghanistan, was arrested by the DEA and flown to New York where he was charged with importing heroin worth $50 million (£27.8 million) into the US and other countries. A US-led Central Poppy Eradication Force was set up this year to remove some of the poppy fields but on its first mission it was met by local people who opened fire and threw stones at them.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-3-1747980,00.html
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By Michael Evans, Defence Editor
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD height=5>
FOR three years guards patrolling one of the world’s remotest borders have been tormented by a man who must rate as one of the world’s most enterprising smugglers.
At first they thought that the lone paraglider must be innocently enjoying his sport in an area where the wind conditions and topography are particularly suited to the sport. But the area is also renowned as a channel for the world’s heroin trade and the glider’s frequent cross-border trips soon aroused suspicion.
Yesterday, when he crossed the ranges that divide Afghanistan from Tajikistan, his canopy was brought crashing to earth in a hail of machinegun bullets. In the wreckage 18kg of heroin was discovered, although by the time the Tajik guards were able to retrieve it the smuggler had run off into the mountains.
Sabza Sarkorov, the deputy head of the Tajik border guards, said that the paraglider had probably been injured. An investigation is under way.
Afghanistan is still the world’s biggest producer of opium, the base for heroin. Despite numerous schemes by the Afghan Government and the international community to force or persuade the poppy farmers to choose alternative livelihoods, it remains the most lucrative crop.
Paragliding is a popular sport in Tajikistan, where the topography is similar to that of the Himalayas. But this is thought to be the first instance of a paraglider regularly transporting contraband.
So far this year Tajik guards have seized more than 800kg of heroin being brought in from Afghanistan. The Afghan anti-narcotics police, who are trained by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), have had a number of recent successes in seizing heroin. Afghan police operating in Kabul, trained by British customs officers, have raided heroin dumps.
However, with the opium business in Afghanistan still representing 60 per cent of the country’s economy, the shooting down of the paraglider and the recent heroin seizures are acknowledged to be small successes.
Eradication of the poppy fields has been ruled out because of the poverty it would cause among subsistence farmers. American and British specialists in Afghanistan are focusing their efforts on the smugglers and traffickers who make the real money from opium. The DEA and American special forces have been involved in a number of classified operations, one of which produced spectacular results four months ago: Haji Bashir Noorzai, the most wanted alleged drugs baron in Afghanistan, was arrested by the DEA and flown to New York where he was charged with importing heroin worth $50 million (£27.8 million) into the US and other countries. A US-led Central Poppy Eradication Force was set up this year to remove some of the poppy fields but on its first mission it was met by local people who opened fire and threw stones at them.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-3-1747980,00.html
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