The Pulse | Society | South Asia

Is Balochistan the Region’s New Drug Cultivation and Trafficking Hub?

The Taliban regime’s ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has led to this illicit crop being cultivated in neighboring Balochistan.

In early February, Pakistan’s Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) seized over 1,350 kilograms of narcotics worth 77.85 million rupees (about $280,000) in a series of operations across Pakistan. The operation resulted in the arrest of nine people and triggered further investigations.

According to the ANF, the drug network was trying to move narcotics from Balochistan’s Panjgur district through Turbat city, toward the coastal towns of Gwadar and Pasni. From there, the drugs were intended to be smuggled onward by sea routes using high-speed boats toward Gulf countries, as well as Yemen and Tanzania.

On the surface, the recent ANF seizure appears to be a routine investigation against organized drug trafficking networks. However, this was not an isolated incident. Reports and data from Pakistan’s National Initiative against Organized Crime (NIOC), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the Global Organized Crime Index show that complex changes may be underway.

Poppy cultivation in both Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan goes back many decades. The absence of sufficient infrastructure, legal employment opportunities, and political instability in these areas combined to push rural populations toward illicit poppy farming.

However, with Afghanistan under the Taliban regime imposing a nationwide ban on the cultivation of poppy in April 2022, the bulk of poppy cultivation seems to have shifted into Pakistan, especially into Balochistan. This shift is raising concern among communities in Balochistan, but apart from the occasional crackdown, it is not yet a policy priority for the Pakistan government.

Since the Taliban ban in 2022, opium production has dropped in Afghanistan. According to a report by UNODC, the area under cultivation shrank by 95 percent. This drastic change reduced the supply of opium, which fell from 6,200 tons in 2022 to just 333 tons in 2023.

However, this sudden drop in supply cannot diminish the continued global demand for poppy. The financial incentives opium traffickers receive through this risky trade amount to many billions of dollars. Traffickers and others involved in the drug trade, therefore, find alternate ways to meet the demand. Balochistan appeared on their radar as a poppy cultivation option.

But even before the Taliban ban, production and export of processed opium (heroin and methamphetamine) were widespread in Pakistan, and had serious consequences, especially among the younger population. More than half of Pakistan’s population is under the age of 20, and 20 percent is between 15 and 29. These youngsters are vulnerable to drug addiction. According to a 2023 report, there were 700 deaths daily due to drug overdose in Pakistan. Around 11 percent of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s population is said to be........

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