Al Qaida drug money

last updated 8 January 2015

Kabul

Al Qaida has been selling Afghan heroin and using the proceeds to buy weapons, Time Asia reported this week. Unnamed Western officials told the magazine that prominent drug lord Juma Khan, who has close ties to Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, had been using a fleet of cargo ships to move Afghan heroin from Pakistan to the Middle East and Europe. The ships return loaded with weapons, including plastic explosives and anti-tank mines, destined for Taliban and al Qaida fighters. Afghanistan’s opium crop this year is expected to exceed 3,600 tons—the biggest harvest since 1999— with a street value of around $36 billion.