Law
enforcement officials in New York say 47-year-old
Afghan Haji Baz Mohammad is a Taliban-linked drug
lord who tried to wage war against America by
selling millions of dollars of heroin there.
A conspiracy indictment unsealed at a US
federal court in New York this week accuses Baz
Mohammad of smuggling more than $25 million worth
of heroin into the US and elsewhere since 1990.
Baz Mohammad was arrested in Afghanistan
in January by Afghan authorities. His transfer
from an Afghan jail to New York on October 21
marks the first time an alleged drug lord has been
extradited from Afghanistan to the US.
"Baz Mohammad is well known to American
law enforcement. On June 1 of this year, President
[George W ] Bush identified Baz
Mohammad as one of
the world's most-wanted drug kingpins," said
prosecutor Michael Garcia, the US attorney for the
New York district handling the case.
The
indictment alleges that Baz Mohammad controlled
opium fields in Afghanistan's eastern province of
Nangarhar - the country's second-largest
opium-producing region. The indictment also
accuses him of using laboratories in Afghanistan
and Pakistan to convert raw opium into heroin
before smuggling it into the US inside suitcases
and in clothing.
US Drug Enforcement
Agency administrator Karen Tandy said
investigators believe Baz Mohammad's organization
provided financial support to the Taliban and
"related Islamist-extremist organizations in
Afghanistan" in exchange for protection. "Haji Baz
Mohammad's organization was closely aligned with
the Taliban," she said. "His opium trade financed
the Taliban. And in turn, the Taliban protected
Haji Baz Mohammad's crops, his heroin labs, his
drug transportation routes, and his associates."
Garcia cited an incident that appears to
illustrate that Baz Mohammad may have extremist
tendencies. The incident allegedly occurred in or
around 1990, when Baz Mohammad was meeting with
members of his organization at what was then his
residence in Karachi, Pakistan.
"Baz
Mohammad even went so far as to tell associates in
Pakistan that selling heroin in the US was a
jihad, because they took the Americans' money and
at the same time, the heroin they sold was killing
them," Garcia said.
New York District
Attorney Garcia said, however, there was no
evidence of any direct connection between the
alleged drug lord and al-Qaeda. "Clearly, when you
have a group like the Taliban who's accepting this
funding from Baz Mohammad, you have the potential
that that's being used in operations against the
United States - although there's no specific
evidence of that as charged in this indictment,"
he said. "What we do have evidence of, as charged,
is money from this operation going to the Taliban
and other groups. And that clearly presents a
national security risk for this country."
At his arraignment in a US federal court
in Manhattan, Baz Mohammad told the judge through
a translator that he was innocent. He pleaded not
guilty to two counts of conspiring to violate US
narcotics laws. But he made no application for
bail and was detained until another hearing
scheduled for November 14.
Baz Mohammad
also was given a court-appointed attorney after
telling the judge he had no money in any bank
accounts.
Thirteen members of Baz
Mohammad's organization have been arrested since
an investigation into its activities was launched
in 2001. His extradition follows the arrest in New
York last April of another alleged Taliban-linked
drug trafficker, Bashir Nurzai.
Nurzai was
indicted under a separate investigation. US
authorities say he was a source of opium for Baz
Mohammad.
Nurzai has said through his
lawyer that he thinks his arrest was politically
motivated and aimed at weakening the Taliban. The
Taliban has denied any links with Nurzai.
Copyright (c) 2005, RFE/RL Inc.
Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW,
Washington DC 20036
