Drug trafficking operations in Afghanistan have hit record levels despite the $7.8 billion anti-narcotics campaign funded by the U.S. government since 2002.
Ill-defined policies from the U.S. Agency for International Development and other federal agencies aren’t reducing opium poppy cultivation, according to the the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world’s opium poppy through an illicit industry that employs 411,000, which is more than the number serving in the Afghan National Security Forces. As the country’s largest export, opium netted an estimated $3 billion for Afghans in 2013.
Even worse, SIGAR said in its quarterly report to Congress made public Wednesday, the anti-narcotics effort may be contributing to the problem.
For example, funds from a $108 million program to discourage narcotic dependence by rewarding Afghan provinces that reduce or eliminate poppy growth with new infrastructure projects instead was diverted by local officials to pay for irrigation systems funneling water to expand cultivation in multiple provinces.
In another example, an $18.7 million USAID program meant to promote alternative sources of income among poppy growers has instead funded construction of irrigation systems, which could “lead to farmers cultivating more land with higher-yielding poppy,” SIGAR said.
The report noted that other U.S. efforts in the country, such as road improvements and agricultural assistance, could also unintentionally enhance the drug trade if the government doesn’t soon come up with a credible plan to fight the booming business.
Another counter-narcotics program paid local Afghan governments to destroy opium crops. The effort was started in 2009, but was redirected by then-Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, to work with provincial governors instead of local officials.
Holbrooke called it “the single most ineffective program in the history of American foreign policy.”
An estimated $1 billion was spent on the effort this year alone but eliminated less than 12 percent of the poppy fields targeted for destruction, the report said.
Afghan law enforcement officers funded by the U.S. have managed to seize an average of less than 8 percent of heroin per year since 2011, SIGAR said.
Although one of the U.S. government’s primary goals is to cut the financial ties between drug trafficking and insurgent groups like the Taliban, SIGAR said “narco-dollars” are still flowing in and out of the country.
Officials have virtually no data on whether the money-laundering operations that funnel drug funds to insurgents have been disrupted by its efforts.
Eradication programs have encouraged Afghans to inflate reported results, and the reward program couldn’t explain why it chose certain projects or if it even implemented them in areas where poppy farming is a problem, the report found.
Go here to read the full report.
