Drug traffickers in the war-torn Helmand province have been winning public support by distributing some of their ill-gotten gains to the poor during the fasting month of Ramadan.
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The growing Taleban insurgency in Helmand has proved a boon to the drugs trade, since government eradicators cannot get into many areas to monitor or destroy the opium poppy crop. The chaos has kept out aid agencies and prevented any meaningful development from taking place, something that has caused resentment and anger among local people.
In return for protection, drug traffickers are believed to be providing money and weapons to the Taleban.
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“I distributed [charity] to the poor in the shape of food and clothing during the holy month of Ramadan,” said the smuggler. “We are Muslims and we are obliged to give alms. I gave most of it to the poor, and a small amount to the Taleban who are fighting for Islam.”
Helmand is the world centre of poppy cultivation. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, this one province supplies close to half the world’s opium and its major derivative, heroin. Efforts to combat the poppy trade have backfired badly – for the past two years, production has skyrocketed.
Given the generosity of the drug traffickers, residents do not seem to be complaining.
Musa-Qala, like Washir, is almost completely under Taleban control. In February, a tenuous peace agreement brokered by tribal elders collapsed, and the fundamentalists swept into the district centre.
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A narcotics trader from Musa Qala said that while he helped the poor during Ramadan, he did not give donations to the Taleban. Instead, he simply paid them for their services in helping him smuggle drugs.
“I give out my alms during Ramadan every year and distribute it among the needy,” he said. “Sometimes I help the Taleban when they help me. They provide me with security when I come up against government forces.”
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