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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Afghan Drug Kingpin Nabbed, on trial in Manhattan |
| 2005-04-25 |
| EFL A reputed Afghan drug lord who authorities say operated with the protection of the Taliban has been captured and faces charges that he tried to smuggle more than $50 million worth of heroin (about 1,100 pounds) into the United States, authorities said. Haji Bashir Noorzai (age 44), who is on the U.S. list of most-wanted drug kingpins, was ordered held without bail at his initial court appearance in Manhattan. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of life in prison. The full circumstances of Noorzai's capture were not made public. Prosecutor Boyd Johnson told a judge that Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested the defendant Saturday in New York, but he did not elaborate. U.S. Attorney David Kelley said that between 1990 and 2004, the defendant and his organization "provided demolitions, weapons and manpower to the Taliban. ...In exchange, the Taliban allowed Noorzai's business to flourish." The Taliban protected Noorzai's opium crops, heroin laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and drug transportation routes out of the country. Gen. Zaher Akbar, head of a U.S.-funded Afghan police unit charged with destroying Afghan opium crops, said Afghan authorities "appreciate the arrest of drug smugglers anywhere in the world, so long as there is proof against them and they are not just released the next day." |
| Posted by: trailing wife |