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Afghanistan’s 777th Special Mission Wing provided air assault capability for the 7th Special Operations Kandak Commandos during a nighttime raid of a narcotics production facility in Helmand district, Afghanistan, Apr. 11-12, 2018. The Commandos seized a large cache of opium worth approximately $12.6 million in lost revenue to the Taliban. The facility contained 120 55-gallon fuel drums of raw opium, four barrels of pure heroin, 150 60-kg. bags of morphine base powder, 25 5-kg. bags of brown heroin, 25 50-kg. bags of opium heroin byproduct, and assorted narcotics processing equipment. Five Taliban fighters were detained during the operation.
“Over 87%-90% of the Afghan people reject the Taliban,” said Gen. John Nicholson, NATO Resolute Support commander on Feb. 26. “This is not a popular insurgency.”
Discovery of this narcotics production facility comes three weeks after the citizens of Lashkar Gah launched a large-scale protest to the Mar. 23 Taliban attack that killed more than a dozen Afghans during a wrestling match in Helmand’s provincial capital. The Lashkar Gah protest instigated a chain reaction with protests in more than 10 provinces calling for the Taliban to join the Afghan-led peace process.
| Date Taken: | 04.20.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 04.22.2018 08:18 |
| Story ID: | 273792 |
| Location: | AF |
| Web Views: | 699 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Afghan and U.S. Special Operations Forces seize Taliban revenue in Helmand, by Martha Schaeffer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
