BAGRAM AIR FIELD – "My name is Major Nimatullah and I've been a police officer for 27 years," explains the Dai Kundi Counter Narcotics police chief with a slight tilt of his head. "For the first 20 years, I worked in criminal investigation, and for the past 7 years, I've been working with the counter narcotics unit."
Dai Kundi prov. is comprised of numerous mountains and deep valleys. The sunrise each morning reflects blue and purple rays across the ragged edges of the rock faces, and the sunset at night paints the entire land orange. But this beautiful landscape and relatively small prov. is considered by many to be the gateway to all of Afghanistan, and consequently, the drug trade.
"People who travel to the north and west of Afghanistan to transport drugs always travel through Dai Kundi," explains Nimatullah. "We don't have many paved roads, and the villages are comprised of peaceful people, which make travel easy for drug traffickers. The Dai Kundi ANP is currently considering closing all routes leading into Dai Kundi to force drug traffickers to avoid our prov., but all options are being considered."
"Since March 2009, the Dai Kundi ANP burned nearly 2,000 meters of poppy crops that were being cultivated into opium in Keyti, Kajran and the Sharistan Districts," remarks Nimatullah. "Anyone with drugs up to 10 kilos is sent to the provincial courts, and anyone with more than 10 kilos is sent to the courts in Kabul," remarks Nimatullah. "One method to enforce drug cultivation laws is to send the farmer to court and monitor them to ensure they do not repeat the offense."
"But of course, we're not after the farmers," explains Nimatullah indignantly. "The people grow poppy for many reasons: because they're forced or because it's the only thing they know. We send reports to Kabul and have the farmers sign a document promising not to cultivate opium in the future. We also display drug awareness posters in the districts and distribute wheat and corn seed to promote legitimate farming. Most drug addicts and drug traffickers come from Afghanistan, but go to neighboring countries and bring drugs back into Afghanistan," remarks Nimatullah, the inflection of sadness more than apparent in his voice. "Afghanistan has the opportunity to grow and thrive, but we, as a country, cannot do that until we defeat the drug trade."
