'Heroin precursors' seized in Afghanistan

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 (UPI) -- Tons of precursor chemicals used to produce heroin were seized in Afghanistan, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said.

Caches of ammonium chloride and sodium carbonate were hidden in sacks of fertilizer and rice, and smuggled across the Pakistani border by truck, a U.N. statement said Thursday.

The shipment was intercepted in Kabul by narcotics officials in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan supplies more than 90 percent of the world's heroin, the statement said.

Officials recently said they seized five tons of another heroin precursor, acetic anhydride, in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, and intercepted 14 tons of the same precursor in Karachi, Pakistan.

"This seizure shows that regional and targeted collaboration works," said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, chief of UNODC's Europe and Asia Section. "Dealing with the drug issue is a shared responsibility. Translating this shared responsibility into action is the art."