Taliban-linked Afghan convicted on drug charges
Mar 14, 2012, 1:44 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal officials say an Afghan man linked to the Taliban who was one of the largest heroin traffickers in the world has been convicted on charges of importing and distributing heroin and for narco-terrorism.
Officials with the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration said Haji Bagcho was convicted Tuesday by a federal jury in Washington. They say he manufactured the drug in secret laboratories along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.
The officials say he sent heroin to more than 20 countries, including the United States, and proceeds from his heroin trafficking were then used to support high-level members of the Taliban to support their insurgency in Afghanistan.
Bagcho was captured and brought to the U.S. in June 2009.
His sentencing is scheduled for June 12.
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