DEA ramps up Afghan operations

WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) -- Narcotics and intelligence analysts say the deployment of Drug Enforcement Administration reinforcements to Afghanistan is a shift in U.S. anti-drug strategy.

The Obama administration has dispatched dozens of DEA agents to the war-torn nation to target entrenched trafficking rings that have supported the Taliban and corrupted Afghan government officials, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

"We see their (Taliban) involvement through just about every stage of drug trafficking, and in each of the four corners of Afghanistan," said Thomas Harrigan, chief of operations for the DEA. "They use the money to sustain their operations, feed their fighters, to assist al-Qaida."

The newspaper said the plan differs from Bush administration police, which concentrated more on the eradication of poppy fields.

The new push is aimed at about a dozen trafficking kingpins, some of whom are directly connected to the Taliban or major international heroin rings. Others are seen as too cozy with the Afghan government, the newspaper said.