The Taliban and al Qaeda appear to be dumping their stockpiles of opium on world markets as their grip on Afghanistan slips, according to European narcotics agents and United Nations officials. Since Sept. 11, Italian police have intercepted a growing amount of heroin derived from Afghan opium and smuggled through the Balkans on its way to Western Europe.

Osama bin Laden's terrorist network raises a large part of its funds through this traffic in opiates, according to Col. Paolo Poletti of Italy's financial police. The Guardia di Finanza helped impound a delivery of heroin in Rome and the Austrian region of Tyrol last week in the latest such find.
The Italian authorities' impression is shared at the United Nations Drug Control Program in Vienna, whose intelligence on falling opium prices in Afghanistan suggests the supply of opium has risen significantly since Sept. 11. A kilogram of raw opium that cost $700 before the terrorist attacks on the U.S. sold for $100 in subsequent weeks, and currently trades for around $300, according to U.N. analyst Thomas Pietschmann.
Afghanistan accounts for 75% of global opiates, and 90% of the heroin in Europe, according to the U.N. Afghanistan's opium stockpiles are controlled by the Taliban, al Qaeda and allied drug barons, say European investigators. Bureau Report