Opium Trade Earns Taliban $100 Million

New York, NY (AHN) - Taliban militants have earned an estimated $100 million from "taxes" generated from farmers growing poppies for the opium trade in Afghanistan, the head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said Tuesday.

Acosta said the earnings do not include money coming from other opium-related activities. He said the extremists may have earned more in protecting laboratories and the transport of the illegal drug.

He told the BBC, "One is protection to laboratories and the other is that the insurgents offer protection to cargo, moving opium across the border."

The U.N. estimates the Afghan opium harvest at $1 billion in 2007. This year's harvest is expected to be low due to drought, infestation and a poppy ban in northern and eastern Afghanistan.

Although Acosta said this would mean lower revenue for the Taliban, the amount of losses would not be enormous, he said.

Last year, Afghanistan produced an estimated 8,000 metric tons of opium, according to U.N. estimates, Acosta said.

He said global consumption of opium amounts only to 4,000 metric tons, leaving a surplus stored somewhere else.

"It is stored somewhere and not with the farmers," he added.

The stockpiled opium is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and could be in the hands of traffickers, corrupt Afghan officials or the Taliban, the U.N. official said.