The illegal drug trade is one of the primary sources of funding for insurgent organisations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but it also fuels narco-terror. The American exit in 2021 implies that the region’s nations will have to take a more active role in border control and face doubts about their ability to halt potentially destabilising tendencies emanating from Afghanistan, according to the Afghan Diaspora Network.
Drug lords and heroin networks are a major hindrance to security, state-building, and democratic government. Beyond national borders, Afghan-originated heroin poses significant difficulties to international security by funding terrorists, inspiring corruption, murdering roughly 100,000 users globally each year, weakening public order, and impeding economic progress.
The Afghan heroin trade has had a disastrous influence on Southwest Asia, Central Asia, Russia, China, the Balkans, and Europe. Narcotics have long been the Taliban’s primary source of wealth. According to the Afghan Diaspora Network, without the poppy crop, they would not have grown to be the vast organisation that they are now, capable of toppling the Ghani administration.
According to Narco-Insecurity, Inc.’s report, The Convergence of the Narcotics Underworld and Extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Their Global Proliferation, this was made possible with the assistance of Pakistan’s ISI, which launched several covert operations with sympathetic jihadist groups, all of whom relied heavily on narcotics trafficking to fund their operations, thus expanding the trafficking route even further through their regions, launching the Balkan, northern, and southern routes.
The most significant of these was the Haqqani network, a criminal operation based on smuggling that operated along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Given their position and ties with several jihadist organisations, the ISI considered the Haqqani network as a critical ally and began investing in their strongholds while utilising them as a proxy for involvement with other non-state actors.
Between insecurity and the opium economy, a vicious cycle has arisen. Because of a lack of government control and alternative livelihoods, insecure areas provide a good ground for poppy production. They both attract and are generated by rebel organisations that benefit from the opium industry at numerous levels of the supply chain.
The recent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has had an impact on the worldwide drug market. Whereas direct counter-narcotics activities in Afghanistan are unlikely to continue, counter-narcotics initiatives will need to transition to a new paradigm.
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