US target list of drug traffickers in Afghanistan

The US has a list of 50 drug traffickers in Afghanistan that US and NATO forces are authorized to kill or capture.

As the WP reports, for years, the NATO-led military coalition in Afghanistan ignored the opium trade, saying their mission was to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda, not drug dealers. Afghanistan's poppy fields supply about 90 percent of the world's opium.

At a meeting in Budapest last October, however, NATO defense ministers reversed their strategy and authorized their forces to confiscate narcotics and target drug labs as well as kingpins who provide monetary or other support to the Taliban.

It's important here to note that the drug traffickers that NATO are now authorized to kill, even in the face of Afghan opposition, are only those with "proven links" to the Taliban. So it doesn't mean that NATO or the US cares about eradicating drugs: they only care about fighting the Taliban.