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During the last week in Chagcharan, Afghanistan, Afghan National Police officers conducted an operation and confiscated a shipment of more than three tons of raw opium from criminals. Chief of Ghor Police General Shah Jahan Noori claims, that during the operation a truck was seized carrying 3240 kg of raw opium and firearms. Three smugglers were arrested and one police officer was killed in shooting.

“This operation proves that after almost two years of training by Lithuanian police and military officers, Ghor Police is more self-confident and is capable of fighting against organised and armed groups of drug traffickers,” Aleksandras Matonis, Head of the Lithuanian Special Mission in Afghanistan, said.

Since autumn 2005, when Lithuanian police advisers started working in Ghor, more than 700 Afghan National Police officers have graduated from trainings organised by the advisers.

Police officers were trained to fire various weapons and acquired criminal investigation, lifeguard and first-aid skills. Implementing quick impact projects, soldiers of the Lithuania-led provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Ghor provided Ghor Police with motorcycles, police radios, took an active part in the trainings of police officers and trained a few subsidiary units of police force. A mission of the US Police Advisers also lends permanent support to officers of Ghor Police.

The training of Ghor Police will continue. The European Commission and Lithuania are co-financing a project of a total value of € 500 thousand (1.7 m Litas). It is aimed at fighting against drug trafficking, therefore nine police stations will be built on the roads of Ghor province next year and Lithuanian Police Department officials will be delegated to take part in the trainings of officers.

Drug traffickers direct their transit routes via Ghor, thus joining the southern and northern provinces of Afghanistan.      

At the end of August, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Antonio Maria Costa announced that this year compared to 2006 opium harvest in Afghanistan had increased by 34 percent and amounted to 9 thousand tons. The country is now the source of 93 percent of opium produced on the world market.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) does not directly fight against drug trafficking. However, it provides assistance in training and supplying the police forces that have a special mission of fighting against narcotics.