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New Zealand troops in Afghanistan have destroyed a haul of opium with a potential street value of US$12 million ($18m).
The almost one tonne of drugs was confiscated on November 1 by a team of Afghan National Police after they caught up with smugglers on a deserted road.
The New Zealand Defence Force in Bamyan received a call from the province's governor Habibi Serabi asking if they could incinerate the drugs.
Wooden pellets filled with opium were stacked on top of each other and doused in petrol before being set alight.
Medical Officer Major Phil Misur, one of those involved in the drugs' destruction, said the experience was as satisfying as it was extraordinary.
"Working in the burn pit surrounded by millions of dollars worth of foul smelling opium, mixed with plenty of diesel and petrol, is an experience I'll never forget," he said.
Police superintendent John Kelly, from Hamilton, said he had never seen such a large quantity of drugs in 30 years of police work.
Mr Kelly said: "It's certainly the biggest haul I've seen in my career and it's a bit different from the average couple of pounds of cannabis you might turn over back home."
Afghanistan is the world's biggest supplier of opium with the country's southern Helmand province producing over 70 per cent of the world's total production alone, the NZDF said.
The annual profit from opium of US$1.3 billion plays a significant part, the NZDF said, in the funding of the ongoing Taleban and Al Qaeda insurgency in Afghanistan.
- NZHERALD STAFF
