Afghanistan

War on Afghan drugs seizes 350 tonnes

More than 350 tonnes of illegal drugs have been seized in Afghanistan since April 2009.

Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said the seizures included heroin, morphine, opium and hashish.

The figure was drawn from Afghanistan's Criminal Justice Task Force, the lead anti-narcotics agency in the country.

He said: "The UK has provided strong support to the government of Afghanistan in delivering its National Drug Control Strategy (NDCS) and, in partnership with our international partners and the United Nations Office on Drugs Crime, will continue to do so in future.

"The NDCS sets out a comprehensive response to the narcotics trade including law enforcement, criminal justice, economic development and regional cooperation."

Afghanistan provides about 90% of the world's opium, the raw ingredient for heroin. The UN and the Afghan government have long tried to wean the country off the lucrative crop.

The largest areas of opium poppy cultivation are in the violent south of Afghanistan, where it can be hard to make money on legal crops and where criminal networks exist to buy and sell the poppy crop.