Afghan National Security Forces(ANSF) supported by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force(ISAF) have seized and destroyed "a sizeable quantity of drugs and weapons" in southern Afghanistan, said an ISAF statement released in Kabul on Thursday.
The joint forces during the operation in the Nawa area of southern province Helmand earlier this week discovered about 400 kilograms of wet opium in the targeted compound with an estimated street value of nearly 1.5 million dollars, the statement said. "Those drugs were destroyed later."
It said that large number of weapons and ammunition were also found at the same place, including rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, small arms and components of explosive.
ISAF indicated in the statement that "discovery of such a combination of drugs and weapons in the same compound clearly highlights the link between insurgents and narco-criminals and shows how the insurgency continues to be funded by criminal activity."
UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a report issued in November revealed that the opium industry is largely funding the Taliban's war budget and a major source of revenue for criminal groups and terrorists in Afghanistan as the anti-government militants could clear 500 million dollars from the industry in 2008.