The Afghan Counter Narcotics Justice Center (CNJC) on Wednesday reported that it has dismantled a sophisticated drug network in Kabul and nabbed a 23-year-old female university student running the network.

According to CNJC, the network was mainly involved in the smuggling of heroin to India and the government had been tracing the network for three years.

CNJC said that the drug network was operating under the cover of a charity organization supporting women and then selecting suitable people from among them to smuggle heroin to India.

How the network came into being

In 2018, police at Hamid Karzai International Airport announced they had arrested several people during a series of operations who had swallowed tens of capsules filled with drugs intending to smuggle them to India. 

Initially, police said that such arrests were usual in the airport and the police later referred those arrested to the legal and judicial institutions. However, the interesting point was that those detained said in their confessions that they were working for a young, educated woman whose alias was Karima, who had been running the network.

“The interesting point is that members of a family were running and leading the smuggling---two sisters from the same family were operating under aliases and were recruiting the young people for this purpose,” said Khaled Muwahid, a spokesman for the CNJC.

Muwahid also said: “Most members of the network were also operating in society legitimately. They were students at the university and were recruiting other students from different faculties including the faculties of literature, journalism and medical sciences. They were telling the students that they were paving the way for them to study abroad and then using them for their smuggling purposes through their own tactics,” said Muwahid.

Karima was leading the network under an official license. The CNJC forces chased Karima for two years, but failed to nab her. CNJC forces several times were on the verge of arresting her, but failed each time.

“One of the police stations reported to us that they have arrested a girl with the specifications of Karima, so we swiftly sent our forces to the police station, but the girl mysteriously disappeared from the police station,” said an investigator who preferred not to be named.

The investigator said that they later heard that Karima was still attending her class at the law school.

“Everything moved according to plan, but when we entered we did not see her in the class, only her pens and papers were lying on her desk. Her colleague told us that she left the class after receiving a call,” said the investigator.

Counternarcotic forces continue to search for Karima, and she was on the run. However, later on, the counter-narcotics forces received information that Karima was living in PD15 of Kabul.

“Everything was done quickly. This time we easily surrounded the house and arrested the girl inside her room with 3 kg of heroin placed in capsules,” the investigator said. But the girl was not Karima.

After a series of investigations it was revealed that the girl who was arrested by the security forces was not Karima, but was her sister. Karima had again managed to evade the security forces.

 “She was very smart and intelligent. She was doing her job before her arrest by police,” said the investigator.

At the same time, there are speculations that there might be other people who are supporting Karima.

“We never understood who was supporting her. We heard nothing and she also said nothing about it. This can remain a mystery for ever,” the investigator said.

The arrest of Karima’s sister provided an opportunity for the security forces to know more about her private life.

“Finally we found her in a restaurant in a suburb of Kabul. She could not believe we had been informed about her presence in that restaurant where she was expected to meet one of her trusted colleagues, she was looking cool at the time of the arrest and was insisting--from the beginning till the end of the investigation--that she was a poor girl who resorted to drug smuggling to help her family,” said the investigator.

18 years jail term

TOLOnews’ reporter met the man who is responsible for investigating Karima’s case in a suburb of Kabul. The man who refused to be named because of security concerns said that a primary court in Kabul has convicted Karima to 18 years in jail. But investigators have said that an 18-year jail term is not sufficient for such a major crime committed by Karima.

“In line with the article 61 of the criminal code, the court had convicted Karima. But the prosecutors did not offer enough evidence against her, therefore, the jail term did not satisfy us and an additional form was filed to review the case, because Karima had run a drug network,” said the investigator responsible for Karima’s case.

However, the evidence of the conviction of Karima’s sister in this case included more than 3 kg of drugs found in her bedroom, and connected her to this smuggling network.

Officials in the CNJC told TOLOnews’ reporter that Karima tried to establish romantic ties with the men and the youngsters to force them to engage in her smuggling. Some of those arrested in the case have also spoken of this, say officials.Tablet K was also discovered in Karima’s bag during the arrest.

According to the investigators, Karim was also in talks with some new men for the purpose.

“Evidence discovered shows that some other people were also under the watch of this network, the network tried to lure them into drug smuggling and pave the way for them to travel abroad and smuggle drugs,” said the man responsible for Karima’s case.

Over the past 3 years, at least 10 people who had swallowed the drugs and intended to smuggle them to India were arrested at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

According to CNJC, 278 people have been arrested since autumn from various parts of Afghanistan in connection with the smuggling. From the figure, 47 of them were those who either swallowed drug capsules or placed them in their bags.

Meanwhile, people who were affiliated with the Karima's network were involved in smuggling heroin. The drug costs up to $ 3,500 per kilogram in Afghanistan, but the cost of this amount of heroin in world markets is much higher.

According to the CNJC, since autumn the security forces have seized major amounts of heroin, crystal methamphetamine, opium, morphine and hashish, which is worth 6 million dollars.

Since autumn, the CNJC has processed 322 cases of drug smuggling. People have been sentenced from 3 to 30 years of prison in connection with the case.

While preparing this report, TOLOnews reporters tried to meet Karima; however, the officials said that the case was still under investigation. Apparently, media will see her in her first appearance at the session of the appeals court.

“From first appearances she is so innocent and simple, she looks like an educated and intelligent girl. It is interesting that she told us that she has studied law and knows how defend these unlawful charges against her,” said a man responsible for Karima’s case.