Kiwon
07-05-2008, 08:14 PM
One story with connections to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, UAE, Japan, and Korea.
Here's a fresh reminder that the war on terrorism is global and takes many forms.
.................................................. .....
Korean Police Round Up Drug Ring Linked to Taliban
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Police apprehended Afghan and Pakistani members of a drug manufacturing ring for allegedly attempting to smuggle chemicals used in the production of heroin to Taliban militants in Afghanistan. Had they succeeded, the heroin produced could have been sold for a huge amount of money to bolster terrorist financing, police said Friday.
According to the National Police Agency, an unidentified Afghan man, and two others stored 12 tons of acetic anhydride ― a precursor chemical in the manufacture of heroine ― at a chemical factory in Ansan, Gyeonggi province, for export to a southern region in Afghanistan, the home base of the Taliban.
The Afghan admitted to securing the chemical for the militants but said he was not a member of the Taliban.
Police said he used a counterfeit passport to get into Korea, and hired Indian nationals here to receive the chemicals from Japan and them ship them to Afghanistan disguised as motor oil. Police have filed for an arrest warrant for him and two coworkers.
In a separate case, a Pakistani man with Korean citizenship and five others tried to smuggle the same chemical agent to Afghanistan using a similar method. The ethnic Pakistani is being deported from Dubai to Korea and the other fugitives have been added to the Interpol search list, police said.
In total, the two groups tried to deliver more than 62 tons of acetic anhydride to Afghanistan, succeeding in delivering about 44 tons. ``With that amount, more than 20 tons of heroine could be manufactured,'' a police officer said. That amount of the drug has a street value of $8 million, the largest ever in Korean drug crime history.
Since the southern part of Afghanistan, where the material was to be shipped, is notorious for abductions and terrorist bombings, police said chances were high that money from the drug sales would been used to finance such activities.
Police said they picked Korea as their hub because the country has the reputation of being a drug-free state, and the monitoring of drug related activity was not too tight.
The investigation was launched at the request of Pakistani police, and the authorities here have secured about 14 tons of the chemical agent.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/news/080704_p03_police.jpg
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/07/117_27048.html[/img]
Here's a fresh reminder that the war on terrorism is global and takes many forms.
.................................................. .....
Korean Police Round Up Drug Ring Linked to Taliban
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Police apprehended Afghan and Pakistani members of a drug manufacturing ring for allegedly attempting to smuggle chemicals used in the production of heroin to Taliban militants in Afghanistan. Had they succeeded, the heroin produced could have been sold for a huge amount of money to bolster terrorist financing, police said Friday.
According to the National Police Agency, an unidentified Afghan man, and two others stored 12 tons of acetic anhydride ― a precursor chemical in the manufacture of heroine ― at a chemical factory in Ansan, Gyeonggi province, for export to a southern region in Afghanistan, the home base of the Taliban.
The Afghan admitted to securing the chemical for the militants but said he was not a member of the Taliban.
Police said he used a counterfeit passport to get into Korea, and hired Indian nationals here to receive the chemicals from Japan and them ship them to Afghanistan disguised as motor oil. Police have filed for an arrest warrant for him and two coworkers.
In a separate case, a Pakistani man with Korean citizenship and five others tried to smuggle the same chemical agent to Afghanistan using a similar method. The ethnic Pakistani is being deported from Dubai to Korea and the other fugitives have been added to the Interpol search list, police said.
In total, the two groups tried to deliver more than 62 tons of acetic anhydride to Afghanistan, succeeding in delivering about 44 tons. ``With that amount, more than 20 tons of heroine could be manufactured,'' a police officer said. That amount of the drug has a street value of $8 million, the largest ever in Korean drug crime history.
Since the southern part of Afghanistan, where the material was to be shipped, is notorious for abductions and terrorist bombings, police said chances were high that money from the drug sales would been used to finance such activities.
Police said they picked Korea as their hub because the country has the reputation of being a drug-free state, and the monitoring of drug related activity was not too tight.
The investigation was launched at the request of Pakistani police, and the authorities here have secured about 14 tons of the chemical agent.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/news/080704_p03_police.jpg
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/07/117_27048.html[/img]