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NEW DELHI: In a severe indictment of lax drug enforcement laws in India, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has underlined the continued largescale illicit supply of acetic anhydride — a precursor chemical used for the manufacture of heroin — to Afghanistan drug lords.

The INCB report released on Thursday has expressed concern at single largest seizure of illicit acetic anhydride in Noida in October 2018, about 9,000 litres. “The chemical was destined for a consignee in Afghanistan,” the report has said while mentioning how every year the illicit supply of the precursor chemical continued.

Afghanistan accounts 90% of the world heroin supply and the drug money is used to finance Taliban and much of the terrorist activities in the subcontinent. Several military and narcotics experts have been quoted in media reports estimating that at least 60% of Taliban’s finances come from the illicit narcotic trade. The 2018 illict drug economy in Afghanistan is believed to have exceeded its total legal exports of goods and services.

Opium poppy cultivation has grown four-fold in Afghanistan from 74,000 hectares in 2001 to more than 3,28,000 hectares in 2017, more than a thousand square miles have been added to the illicit cultivation during this period, according to estimates by the UN Office for Drugs and Crime.

And so has the demand for acetic anhydride that is used to refine opium to manufacture heroin.

In 2017, Indian agencies seized 23 litres of the chemical while in 2016 the seizures were more than 2,400 litres. The seizures of illicit acetic anhydride have continued over the years which show lax enforcement and monitoring of the controlled substance by designated Indian enforcement agencies.

“A comprehensive review of the situation with respect to the control of precursors and chemicals frequently used in the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances in the region can be found in the 2019 report,” INCB has said, reminding India on its pledge to implement Article 12 of the 1988 UN Convention against illicit traffic of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

Manufacture of acetic anhydride is difficult to be banned in India as the chemical is used as precursor for many other industries such as paint, pharmaceuticals, cigarette and as a bleaching agent in the detergent industry.

However, the chemical has been brought under the precursor control regime where every litre of the acetic anhydride coming out of the factory gates of a manufacturer is supposed to be monitored by designated agency, in this case the Narcotics Control Bureau.

Indian has been suffering from illicit heroin supplies from Afghanistan that are trafficked via Pakistan to India through the porous borders of Punjab and then smuggled to US, Europe and Canada where it fetches the highest street price.

The smuggling of heroin from Afghanistan with international syndicates using India as a major trafficking route has also resulted in a large number of its young population getting addicted to the drug.

It has also been established by several investigation reports by security agencies that the drug money is used by neigbouring Pakistan to also fund several terrorist outfits operating in India.

