Opium

Anne Arundel County police and federal agents have arrested four men on charges of running an opium ring out of the backs of carpet stores in Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties, apparently the first opium arrests in the Baltimore-Washington corridor in at least two decades.Police arrested Hajirahman Alejalil, 47, of the 15000 block of Indianola Drive in Derwood, Prince George's County; Majid Mostafa, 41, of the 10000 block of Prince Place in Largo; and Mehdi Livani, 46, and Touraj Zoulfaghary, 40, both of the first block of Pinkney St. in Annapolis at the stores late Tuesday.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Mohammad Ashrafy waited for the death of the family figurehead, a respected mullah, before he finally planted opium poppies this year for the first time. And sometimes, when he gazed out over the huge stretch of poppies he grew in the Ghor province of central Afghanistan this spring and summer, he felt guilty, recalling the admonishments of his late uncle, Mullah Mortaza Kahn. "We know growing opium is against Islam, but we have to do it," said Ashrafy, 38. "I was the only person left here not growing it, and there was no mullah telling me to stop."

WASHINGTON -- Booming Asian production of opium, from which heroin is made, has increased the supply of the drug in the United States and fueled fears of a rise in addiction."

WASHINGTON -- American combat troops will be thrown into the fight against narcotics traffickers in Afghanistan, where despite a $1 billion U.S. effort, another record opium crop is expected this fall, U.S. anti-drug officials said yesterday. In a briefing for reporters, the officials outlined the new approach as part of a "basic strategy shift" in the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan. Production of Afghan opium in the coming year will provide the entire world's supply of heroin, U.S. officials reported, surpassing last year's record-high production that has defied a concerted international effort at controlling narcotics.

QUETTA, Pakistan - Down the road from St. Francis Grammar School, beneath the Jinna Road Bridge, where stray dogs curl up beside the stench of an open sewer, the heroin addicts of Quetta come to get high. Their shadowy home is in Pakistan. But the source of their drugs is neighboring Afghanistan, whose poppy fields supply more than 70 percent of the world's opium and heroin. And the short trip across Afghanistan's porous 1,500-mile border makes heroin available here for less than $1.25 a gram to glassy-eyed addicts like 65-year-old Noor Shah.

BAGHU-BAGHU, Iran - The desert was silent as the sun came up in the early morning of April 16. The air was still, and no vehicles plied the road that leads directly to the border with Afghanistan, only 46 miles away. This parched village of 60 families on a desert highway, one of the main conduits for the flood of opium into Iran, seemed to be asleep. Then, out of nowhere, came the village patrol. They pointed Kalashnikovs at Ghafoor Bakhti and his friend. The two men were sitting by the roadside, and their being strangers in this place was reason enough for the patrol to search them.

WASHINGTON - President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai voiced concerns about the conduct of each other's countrymen in a private White House meeting yesterday, but both quickly made a point of publicly downplaying any conflict between the two. Bush's concern over runaway poppy production in Afghanistan and Karzai's over American military mistreatment of Afghan prisoners come at a time of increasing violence in the nation where the United States...

Anne Arundel County police and federal agents have arrested four men on charges of running an opium ring out of the backs of carpet stores in Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties, apparently the first opium arrests in the Baltimore-Washington corridor in at least two decades.Police arrested Hajirahman Alejalil, 47, of the 15000 block of Indianola Drive in Derwood, Prince George's County; Majid Mostafa, 41, of the 10000 block of Prince Place in Largo; and Mehdi Livani, 46, and Touraj Zoulfaghary, 40, both of the first block of Pinkney St. in Annapolis at the stores late Tuesday.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan police officers suffered heavy casualties when they came under attack by suspected Taliban insurgents overnight in a police station in southern Afghanistan, police officials said yesterday. Six policemen were killed and two were wounded in the fighting, which lasted from midnight until 3 a.m., according to the police. Three other police officers were also killed Friday in two other attacks. The largest attack occurred in the Garmser district of Helmand province, one of the most lawless parts of Afghanistan and the biggest opium poppy region.

NAD-I-ALI, Afghanistan -- As the golden sun sets over the rich fields outside this village of mud houses and turbaned men, farmers tend to their crops, weeding, fertilizing and bringing precious water to the sprouting plants.It is the kind of scene American planners had in mind in the 1950s when they began transforming the deserts of southern Afghanistan into lucrative cropland.In one of the most expensive U.S. foreign-aid projects of the time, dams were built along the Helmand River, canals were dug, highways were laid, and new cities grew.