Afghan officials say counternarcotics teams have seized roughly 23 tons of heroin and morphine and other chemicals in a helicopter raid. They say the bust was the largest so far this year.
The raid commander, General Abdul Khalil Bahktyar, said in a news conference Tuesday that helicopter-borne commandos raided a facility in the Sherzad district of Nangarhar province east of Kabul. They seized drugs and large quantities of chemicals such as ammonium chloride, which are used in the manufacture of illicit narcotics.
Bahktyar says the massive haul was the latest of 210 raids this year in which his commandos had arrested more than 190 suspects. He said the drugs were destroyed burned at the scene and six drug labs dismantled.