Attachment_7-U.S._COUNTER-NARCOTICS_STRATEGY_FOR_AFGHANISTAN.docx

U.S. COUNTER-NARCOTICS STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN

The USG five-pillar strategy focuses on helping the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) disrupt Afghanistan's opium-based economy and strengthen the central government's control over the country. To address these objectives comprehensively, the USG has focused on helping the GIRoA implement the five pillar strategy:

1. Public Information (PI) - (State/INL and DOD): Designed as a year-round, nationwide program focused on helping the GIRoA achieve sustainable reductions in poppy cultivation and production through public information, engagement, and education.

2. Alternative Development (AD) - (USAID): Designed to help the GIRoA establish economic alternatives to the cultivation of poppy for Afghan people.

3. Elimination/Eradication - (State/INL): Designed to help the GIRoA deter and reduce the cultivation of opium poppy by launching a major program of prevention incentives while also building a credible forced eradication capability.

4. Interdiction - (DEA, DOD, and State/INL): Focuses on decreasing narcotics trafficking and processing in Afghanistan by helping the GIRoA build its capacity to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug trafficking organizations. Groups such as the DEA-trained Counter narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA), the Afghanistan Special Narcotics Force (ASNF), and the National Interdiction Unit (NIU) of the CNPA are being equipped to arrest and prosecute the command and control elements of narcotics trafficking organizations.

5. Law Enforcement/Justice Reform - (DOJ and State/INL): Encompasses both police and justice sector efforts to help the GIRoA increase overall rule of law, specifically in the area of narcotics-related law enforcement. Programs are closely tied to police-sector and justice-sector efforts at large. USG advisors mentor the Afghan Criminal Justice Task Force's (CJTF) pursuit of narcotics and public corruption cases through the Central Narcotics Tribunal (CNT) in Kabul.