Children safer now £50m Afghanistan heroin stash seized

The British army has seized heroin and other drugs worth about £50million alongside bomb-making equipment.

The seizure will "starve" funds, for the Taliban and help rid the drug from getting into the hands of children on British streets, defence officials say.

About 700 British and Afghan troops were involved in Operation Diesel, which captured four drugs factories in Helmand Province and disrupted facilities making improvised bombs, the Ministry of Defence said today.

The raids were carried out in the notorious Sangin Valley, known as a heartland for the Taliban terror group which has burnt down schools across the country and banned girls from education. John Hutton, the Defence Secretary, said the raids were key to damaging the drug-fuelled infrastructure of the Taliban and would stop the drugs reaching UK streets.

“The links between the Taliban and the drugs trade are well proven and we know that the revenue from narcotics production directly funds the insurgency,” Brigadier Gordon Messenger of the Royal Marines, Commander of Task Force Helmand told the BBC.“Operation Diesel was a clinical precision strike, supported by strong intelligence, which has had a powerful disruptive effect on known insurgent and narcotics networks in the area. The success of the operation is a significant boost to the Afghan authorities in their fight against the drugs trade,” he said.

Chemicals used to make heroin ─ ammonium chloride, acetic anhydride, sodium chloride and calcium hydroxide ─ were also found. There was enough of these to make an amount of heroin with an estimated end street value of more than £50 million. Troops also seized weapons and ammunition, including Ak47 assault rifles, PKM machine guns, numerous ammunition magazines and 3 RPG rocket launchers complete with additional warheads. A motorbike modified for use in a suicide attack was also seized.

Each year, 25 to 35 tonnes of heroin enters the UK, according to figures from The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca). In 2007, a gram of heroin sold for between £40 and £50. A yearly import of 30 tonnes of heroin, multiplied by £45 per gram, would have a total street value of £1.35bn. Soca said 90% of the UK's heroin is derived from Afghanistan.

SOS Children's Villages has been running an emergency relief programme for Afghan refugees in Pakistan since October 2001, providing health care, education and recreation for children. The facilities include two schools for girls who had never before received any form of education.

Written by Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children