'Pablo Escobar' of Afghan Heroin Trade Arrested
The feds have arrested Haji Bashir Noorzai, a reputed Afghan heroin kingpin who allegedly did business with the Taliban.
Noorzai had an ``unholy alliance'' with deposed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, trading drugs and weapons for protection of his operation, [U.S. Attorney David] Kelley said. Last June President George W. Bush described Noorzai as a ``drug kingpin'' under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, which targets individuals who pose ``a threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States,'' Kelley said.
Soundbite of the day - designed to stick in a juror's mind:
John Gilbride, special agent in charge of the New York office of the DEA, called Noorzai the ``Pablo Escobar of heroin trafficking in Asia,'' referring to the former leader of Colombia's Medellin cocaine cartel. Escobar died in 1993.
Never heard of him? Me either. But Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL) says he is bin Laden's biggest supplier.
Noorzai's operation yields $28 million a year, Kirk said, and is believed to be bin Laden's major heroin supplier, according to a November 2004 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Somehow I can't help but think that if this guy had any connection to bin Laden himself, he would have been flown out on Ghost Air for interrogation in Afghanistan rather than charged with drug crimes in federal court.
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