NEW YORK - US prosecutors said Monday they had arrested a major Afghan heroin trafficker, Bashir Noorzai, who allegedly provided weapons and troops to the country`s former Taliban regime in exchange for protection.
Federal prosecutors said Noorzai had been charged with conspiring to import more than 50 million dollars` worth of heroin into the United States and other countries.
US Attorney, David Kelley, said the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) became aware that Noorzai was planning to come to the United States and "they seized both the opportunity and the individual."
He gave no other details of the arrest but said Noorzai would be arraigned in a federal court later Monday.
Noorzai was identified by President George W. Bush last June as one of the world`s most wanted drug traffickers when he signed a law on the foreign narcotics trade.
According to the indictment, Noorzai has since 1990 led an international trafficking organisation with control over substantial poppy fields in Afghanistan.
It alleged that the organisation used laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan to process the opium into heroin, before moving it to overseas markets including the United States.
The indictment said the detained man was closely linked to the Taliban, that US forces deposed in late 2001 after the September 11 attacks.
It said Noorzai`s organisation provided explosives, weaponry and manpower to the Taliban in exchange for the protection of its opium crops and heroin infrastructure and drug smuggling routes.
"The Afghan drug lords who control Afghanistan`s heroin supply seek to destabilize the country`s emerging democracy, to exploit its farmers and to poison the youth of the west," Kelley said.
"Our actions today will help to dismantle the Afghan drug trade and bring to justice the merchants of powerful poison," he added.
Of Noorzai`s relationship with the Taliban, Kelley said the alleged drug lord had formed an "unholy alliance" with the now fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
According to the indictment, Taliban authorities seized a truckload of morphine base in Afghanistan sometime in 1997. When it became clear that the truck belonged to Noorzai, it was returned to him, with its cargo intact and personal apologies from Mullah Omar.
If convicted, Noorzai faces a minimum prison sentence of 10 years, with the possibility of a life term.
Noorzai was known to narcotics officers at the "Pablo Escobar of Asia," DEA agent John Gilbride said, referring to the notorious Colombian drug kingpin shot dead by police in 1993
"Our streets and communities are safer today with Noorzai out of business," Gilbride said, adding that the arrest was a "huge victory" for both the United States and Afghanistan.
Kelley offered no details of what role, if any, the Afghan authorities, played in Noorzai`s arrest.
"But I will say we recognise that President (Hamid) Karzai and others in his administration are certainly committed to eradicating the opium fields in Afghanistan," he said.
Karzai declared a "jihad" or a holy war or on drugs shortly after being elected Afghan president in October last year.
Afghanistan grows 87 percent of the world`s supply of the opium used to make heroin, according to UN reports.
The country saw a 64 percent leap in opium production in 2004 and has also branched into heroin refining over the last year.
04/25/2005 16:13 GMT