U.N.: Opium trade means $100M to Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 24 (UPI) -- The Taliban made about $100 million in 2007 from Afghan farmers raising poppies for the opium trade, a United Nations drug and crime report indicates.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said the money was raised by imposing a 10 percent tax on farmers in Taliban-controlled areas, the BBC reported. The U.N. estimates the 2007 poppy harvest was worth about $1 billion.

Costa said the militant organization made even more money form related activities to the opium market.

"One is protection to laboratories and the other is that the insurgents offer protection to cargo, moving opium across the border," Costa told the British broadcaster.

While the final figures for 2008 aren't available, Costa said yield and proceeds likely would be down because of drought, plant infestation and a ban enforced in the north and east of Afghanistan.

Revenue would be lower, "but not enormously," Costa said.

British officials told the BBC drug money funds the Taliban's military operations.

"The closer we look at it, the closer we see the insurgents (are) to the drugs trade," David Belgrove, head of counter narcotics at the British embassy in Afghanistan, told the BBC