Afghan police seize 44 tonnes of drugs in 3 months

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan counter narcotics police have seized 44 tonnes of heroin and opium in the last three months, a big achievement in the fight against record-breaking drug production, a top government official said on Sunday.

Afghanistan's poppy fields produced 93 percent of the world's opium last year, with more land under drug cultivation than Colombia, Bolivia and Peru combined, the United Nations says.

But Afghan authorities say they are making some progress in cutting drug production, with more provinces expected to be declared poppy-free this year. A poor poppy harvest and high wheat prices are also expected to discourage drug production.

"We have seized more than one tonne of heroin, 43 tonnes of opium and 256 tonnes of cannabis in the past three months from all over Afghanistan," Deputy Interior Minister General Dawood Dawood told reporters in the Afghan capital Kabul.

"Around 463 cases of people involved in drugs issues have been finalized. That includes foreign and Afghan drug traffickers," he said.

Illegal drugs are estimated to be worth more than $3 billion a year to the Afghan economy. That money helps fuel official corruption and also helps the Taliban insurgency through a 10 percent tax the militants impose on poppy farmers.

Western officials complain Afghan authorities have failed to act against high-profile officials involved in the drugs trade, but Dawood said those arrested included senior officials.

"We have arrested people involved in the drug trafficking business up to district governors and police chiefs and handed them over to the court," Dawood said.

There are currently some 4,000 police officers in the campaign against drugs in Afghanistan, a small number considering the scale of the problem.

(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Alex Richardson)