strategies to counter opiate in Afghanistan - Groupe URD

Lack of political will: the big drug traffickers and heads of mafia networks are often
present in political and/or police authorities or have close links with these, whether in
Afghanistan or elsewhere. There is therefore a need for a great deal of political will to
address this issue.
Lack of transparency between countries: the Paris Pact encourages collaboration and
sharing of information between countries which are sometimes suspicious of each
other and therefore not very inclined to share strategic information.
Different approaches: whereas certain actors like the regional dimension of the
Rainbow Strategy, others criticise the fact that there are not more activities which
focus on Afghanistan. They feel that it is easier to deal with the source of the problem
rather than an extremely broad network.
5.2.2 Law enforcement (arrests)
The objective of this pillar is to establish institutional capacity to increase drug trafficking
risk through law enforcement.
The main organisation in this pillar is the U.S. government’s Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA). Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, the
European Union and France, also contribute to this pillar, but to a lesser degree. The
activities carried out essentially involve building the capacity of the Counter-Narcotics
Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) and the three investigation units (the Narcotics Investigation
Unit, the Sensitive Investigation Unit and the Technical Investigation Unit) to identify and
arrest traffickers.
These activities have had some success and have led to several arrests. However, some
weaknesses and constraints persist, making a possible handover to the Afghan
government difficult:
Building the capacity of police personnel is difficult, particularly due to the low level of
education of the officers. Law enforcement requires analysis and investigation skills
which are difficult to transmit in a short space of time.
The logistical costs of law enforcement operations are often high (helicopters,
weapons and the cost of capture operations). These are essentially covered by the
United States for the time being.
A great deal of political will is needed to pursue and arrest top level drug traffickers.
Many of them have close links with the authorities or are part of the government. This
corruption makes operations of any real scale difficult.
Law enforcement operations need to be backed up by a strong judicial system, but the
Afghan judicial system also has weaknesses (see below).
This pillar is run by the DEA rather than the Afghan government. It would appear that
the DEA plans to remain operational in Afghanistan for the long term.
Strategies to counter opiate production in Afghanistan
Groupe URD | Juin 2010
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