US designates Taliban Helmand chief as drug trafficker, imposes sanctions
According to a statement by the Department of Treasury, Mullah Barich was described as the “Shadow Governor” of Helmand, the largest opium producing district in Afghanistan.
The statement added that Barich was already on the UN Security Council Resolutions 1988 Sanctions List for supporting the Taliban and the Treasury’s sanctions on Barich will now prohibit any US citizen from conducting financial or commercial transactions with him, while freezing any assets he may have that fall under the US’ jurisdiction.
Highlighting Barich’s dealings, the statement said that Barich was involved in various levels of heroin and opium drug trade.
“Barich convened a meeting to discuss narcotics production and delivery to Pakistan and Iran. The meeting was held in a compound in Girdi Jangle, Pakistan, and attended by a number of prominent narcotics producers and smugglers.
“Further, a consignment of processed white heroin, owned by Barich, was sent from a narcotics trafficker’s compound in Girdi Jangle, Pakistan, to Salawan, Iran, and then on to the Turkish border for further distribution.”
The statement further said that in March 2012, Barich wrote to Taliban commanders on what steps to take to protect the poppy harvest from the government-led eradication operations.
“Barich has said the funds from the poppy harvest will permit the Taliban to survive, and therefore, it must be protected at all costs.”
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And when will the international community get around to initiating an effective integrated counter-narcotics program, as I have been outlining since 2002, that actually gives the farmers an incentive, support and alternative cash crops to get out of opium poppy cultivation, as they have been requesting for years. Poppies give a better income than wheat, for example, the crop that the past governor focused on with free or subsidized wheat seed which they did not need so sold much on the Pakistani market. But the farmers do not get rich on poppy. And they would prefer to get back into legal cash crops (like cotton, peanuts, melons...and especially help with the marketing with which we have done nothing.) as they consider poppy as an evil crop, as more and more of their people get addicted with the easily attainable opium. And Helmand produces a very high percentage of the world's opium, helped by the largest modern irrigation system in the country mostly built with our help between 1946-79. And we have been standing around with our hands in our pockets, doing nothing effective for the past 12 or so years as opium production exploded. When will we get started? Perhaps after 2014?