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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Answer

Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many opium seizures have been made (a) in Afghanistan and (b) on Afghan borders since UK forces took control of the international community's efforts to stop the flow of drugs from Afghanistan. [193467] Mr. Rammell: The UK took on lead nation status for coordinating international counter narcotics activity in Afghanistan in April 2002. We remain committed to supporting the Afghan Government in implementation of their Afghan National Drug Control Strategy, and have allocated more than £70 million over three years for counter narcotics activity plus significant development funding and support for alternative livelihoods. The British Embassy Drugs Team, with assistance from other Government Departments, rather than UK forces, is the main delivery agent of this support and coordination. Since it became operational in January 2003, the Afghan Special Narcotics Force, supported by UK advice and funding, has seized over 50 tonnes of opiates. In addition, the Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan, which was created in January 2003 with UK support, report that to date they have seized 2.1 tons heroin and 13.6 tons opium, over 1.5 tons of which were achieved specifically in UK supported operations together with 4.6 tons of precursor chemicals. The Afghan general and border police also seize opiates in the course of their work, but we do not have reliable figures. In addition, the UK works closely with Afghanistan's neighbours, including providing assistance, to help their efforts to counter the flow of opiates from Afghanistan. These countries have reported that in excess of 100 tonnes of opiates were seized in 2003.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

425 c1383W; 193467

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Crime prevention Armed forces Borders Drugs International cooperation Organised crime Smuggling Afghanistan Opium Drug seizures

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk