By P. Timofeyev--our special correspondent, Kabul-Moscow: "Containers With a Double Bottom" [Moscow, Sovetskaya Rossiya in Russian, 20 Mar 91, First edition, p. 5].

I very much wanted to go on this excursion through Kabul. To receive permission for it proved to be not a simple matter, but, finally, all formalities were arranged. We left close to evening. A state security officer was my "guide". The purpose of the trip was to visit the city districts where drugs were pushed and to where they were brought from all Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.

The Shakhri Nau District. There are small shops in one-and two-story buildings on both sides of the road. Literally everything is on sale: from Soviet electric teapots to "Mercedes" and Japanese television sets of the latest models. The sidewalks almost cleared of snow are filled with people. The work day has ended, everyone rushes home. Everywhere there are stands and carts with vegetables, fruits, almonds, pistachio nuts, raisins, and other Eastern delicacies.

It is unbelievable, but any drugs can be bought in almost every small shop and from every street dealer here. People say that a few years ago this could be done fully in the open. Now it is more complicated, nothing will be sold in the usual manner to a stranger, especially if he is European. At least one permanent customer must vouch for you. The person accompanying me does not permit me to conduct an experiment. It is not recommended that a person stop here and, especially, get out of the car.

We drove on. About 15 minutes later we are on the direct highway stretched along a river bed, which is dry at this time. The foot of the mountains is several meters to the right. The houses, which stick to them like honeycombs of bees, rise high up. Here, I am told, are the big shots. This is not a place for small street dealers, but the export market of "white death." Many such seemingly wretched houses--small sheds--have large wholesale warehouses, laboratories with the latest Western equipment, telexes, and telefaxes, which provide Afghan drug mafiosi with instantaneous communications with the whole world.

Passers-by on the street are much fewer. The rare ones, which we have encountered, follow our car with attentive glances. We are just as watchfully observed from many windows. Round-the-clock security is organized professionally. It is virtually impossible to sneak up to a warehouse or a laboratory unnoticed. This district has such a bad reputation that foreigners drive a whole block to detour it and the people of Kabul, who are not connected with drug pushing, do not risk appearing here when it gets dark.

Narcotic substances were probably grown and produced in Afghanistan always. Both the climate and, above all, national traditions, contributed to this. From time immemorial it was believed that the person who ate a cookie sprinkled with opium poppy would be vigorous and fresh for 1 and 1/2 days.

Virtually all grown narcotic substances were consumed on the domestic market. A significant increase in consumption and production was not observed. However, as of 1978, when together with the revolution a war came to the country, not ending until now, the situation has changed. The production of drugs has increased rapidly. A number of international factors have also had an effect on this: for example, such as the toughening of the fight against this evil in Latin America and in the countries of "the golden triangle" and the introduction of capital punishment for pushers of "white death" in Iran and Pakistan. The recent crises in the Persian Gulf has also played into the hands of Afghan drug dealers. The established drug trafficking channels to North America and Europe have been cut off. All this has brought the drug problem in Afghanistan to a totally different level.

In a short period the country has become one of the first places in drug production in the world. According to the data of UN experts, from 800 to 1,000 tons of narcotic substances will be produced in Afghanistan during the current year alone. In consumer countries in the last 5 years the demand for strong- acting preparations has increased very rapidly--on the average, by 14 to 16 percent. The toughening of customs rules and legislation and the growing demand force dealers to process raw materials locally. In Afghanistan laboratories are growing like mushrooms. Today only those that are known in this country number about 50. The heroin produced in them is of the purest degree.

Virtually all plantations and most laboratories are located on the territory controlled by the opposition. For field commanders drug pushing has become the main occupation. The old slogans about the holy "jihad" and about the fight against the Kabul Government until the triumphant end now serve rather as a cover. Reports of disagreements in the ranks of the opposition and on armed clashes among individual detachments, as a rule, reflect precisely the fight for plantations and sales channels.

As I was told in Afghanistan's Ministry of State Security, the recent murder of Mulla Nasim, a prominent field commander, no matter with what political colors it was painted, was directly connected with drugs. Mulla Nasim controlled 20 percent of their production. He was not forgiven for the fact that he took 2 million dollars from the Americans, promising to distribute them to peasants so that they would stop growing hemp and poppy. In brief, the money did not reach them to whom it was intended, but remained in the pockets of the ringleader and his closest assistants. However, the sentence had already been pronounced. The people of Gulbbeddin Khekmatiar took away Mulla Nasim. His four brothers took over the business. They claimed that they knew nothing about the 2 million.

In the end, the result was the opposite: having heard about his money, other provinces sharply increased the number of plantations, apparently in the hopes that the Americans would also offer something to other ringleaders...

Even without coming on these "compensatory" millions, production will most probably continue to grow rapidly. The mujahidin, receiving such a fantastic income, can no longer stop. From ordinary producers 1 kg of opium is bought for approximately 28.000 Afghanis. At the black market rate this is about 30 dollars. Second-hand dealers sell 1 kg for 270.000 afghanis--350 dollars. On West European markets this opium costs 350,000 to 400,000 dollars. And in North America, even more. Prices are rising constantly.

The profit earned from "white death" is deposited in foreign accounts of opposition leaders, or goes for the purchase of arms not for the "fight against the infidels in Kabul" but, in fact, for the protection of laboratories and plantations against competitors.

"Contrary to ideas existing in some Western countries, the Government of Afghanistan and law enforcement services see the entire danger of the situation and do not sit with arms folded." Mohammad Farin, the republic's deputy minister of state security, said in a conversation with me. "Last year bodies of the Ministry of State Security alone destroyed narcotic crops on more than 90 hectares. A total of 5.5 tons of ready hashish and more than 300 kg of opium were removed and destroyed. And this despite the fact that we have no access to most regions where plantations are located. An emergency commission for fighting against this evil headed by the vice-president was established in the republic. The parliament is now considering a new law, which significantly toughens punishments for all crimes connected with drugs."

According to the general, a mass bombing of hemp and opium poppy crops and their large-scale defoliation from army helicopters, technically, do not pose a big problem. However, the fact that hundreds of thousands of Afghans live in these provinces prevents this. By no means are all of them drug dealers. Bombs have been falling on their heads for almost 13 years anyhow...

If to compare Afghanistan with other countries, where narcotic substances are produced and grown, it is now the second stage of development of the criminal infrastructure. There is a network of well armed fighting detachments trained during the long civil war, which control opium and hemp plantations. For the time being, there are no clear boundaries between their spheres of influence. Therefore sparks of conflicts flare up periodically. As soon as the final division occurs, drug ringleaders will set their eyes on Kabul. It cannot be ruled out that Kabul, which has repulsed all the assaults of the opposition, this time will not resist and will surrender to the flow of drug dollars. Then the tumor, as in Colombia, will enter the third stage, which is most dangerous and almost incurable. For now, the second stage, an active penetration of the international drug mafia is going on in Afghanistan. The latest case with 2 tons of Afghan hashish detained in Hamburg is a striking example of this. The trafficking operation disrupted at the last moment by German customs officials was carried out according to the classic rules of the international mafia.

The drugs were bought in Kabul and hidden in one of the secret warehouses, apparently, on the remarkable street on which I was driven. Then several containers were found in a dump. They were repaired, hiding places were made, drugs were placed there, and the containers were again brought to the dump. The next stage--the purchase of a cargo of raisins and the registration of false documents for it--passed smoothly. The export cargo was submitted for a customs inspection. Again, there were no difficulties except for the request (the organizers were thoroughly familiar with Afghan reality) that they themselves find containers, which were very scarce. As you realize, the criminals found them easily.

To transport the drugs, the most convenient, the safest and the present most widely used route was chosen--through the territory of the Soviet Union. Virtually all of Afghanistan's export cargos--all in containers, in which it is so convenient to make hiding places--pass as transit goods through our country.

About 15 tons of drugs coming as transit goods from Afghanistan have been uncovered in our country in the last 4 years. According to statistics, at best customs officials manage to detain one-tenth of the smuggled drugs. According to some estimates, in our case this percent is much lower. Here it is not a matter of bad work on the part of Soviet customs officials. They, like their Afghan colleagues, cannot manage alone. It is necessary to construct large terminals and special inspection centers equipped with the latest apparatus in places of the biggest crossing of transit containers.

Such centers for collective protection against smuggling cost a fantastic sum. We do not have such money, and it is unlikely that it will appear in the very near future.

It turns out that, again, there is only one hope: the West. After all, if to look at this objectively, developed countries with their vast drug markets should be much more interested than the Soviet Union in seeing to it that the poison does not infiltrate through its borders. The sooner a container with hashish or cocaine is uncovered, the better. Everything is seemingly so. Nevertheless, we have not yet received proposals for the construction of such inspection centers. One thing is unclear: Why in this case do we sit and wait for something to be offered to us, while, at the same time, we are not ashamed to ask for money for sneakers, beer, video tape recorders, and cigarettes?

Many people probably know that the foundations for a currency market in one form or another will be established in our country in 3 to 4 years. Right now in big cities there is a large number of stores trading for currency. Machines, building materials, apartments, and many other things are sold for "hard" money. This means that there will be increasingly more freely convertible currency in the country. Who knows? Perhaps the ruble will soon interest drug dealers no less than the dollar or the mark. It is naive to assume that "businessmen" from Afghanistan, who wish to sell in the Soviet Union goods that bring the highest income, will not appear. Why should they travel far? And they will be able to offer them--they have a great deal of experience in this. Then the transit flow of drugs to the West will become depleted in itself without any terminals.

The law on free departure will increase economic and humanitarian relations between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan severalfold. Unfortunately, it is quite realistic to assume that our and Afghan drug mafias will merge. The theoretical possibility of saturation of the Soviet market with phosphoric- hydrogen, acetic, and other acids necessary for the production of strong-acting drugs is most dangerous. We have more than enough raw materials. And if we remember that Afghanistan has an abundance of other goods--arms, which are in ever greater demand in our country--there is something to think about.

I do not at all urge that Soviet-Afghan trade relations be limited, that the treaty on the transit of goods through our territory be revised and that every container arriving in Termez or Kushka be shaken up. This is impossible. However, to turn away from the problem, as from everything connected with Afghanistan--for some reason this is now accepted in our country--is short-sighted to say the least. We also should not do this, because we are responsible for all the troubles now facing the country, including this one. During the years of stay of Soviet Union troops, the volume of drug production in Afghanistan increased almost fivefold!

The closest interaction of Soviet and Afghan customs services and bodies of state security and internal affairs and the use of the Soviet Union's authority to draw attention to this problem and to give Afghanistan real assistance in the fight against the terrible evil of developed Western countries--according to the opinion of the Afghan people to whom I talked, these are the priority directions, which can, if not reduce, at least halt the production and spread of drugs in Afghanistan and beyond its borders. All this must be done right now, today. If it is not too late...