Gen. Amerkhel and family prior to the Attorney General's forced entry and search

A chance discovery in Kabul of an illegal shipment of heroin destined for Toronto, Canada reveals how the current bumper crop of Afghan opium products is seeking new markets abroad. Up to now, an estimated 90% of refined heroin from Afghanistan has been consumed in European cities.

But with increased supplies choking traditional trafficking lanes, resourceful smuggling gangs are evidently trying to extend their reach into North America.

Meanwhile, Canadian and U.S. officials in Kabul continue to sit silently on the sidelines while the crisis over anti-narcotics policing in the Afghan capital has escalated. The respected former police chief of Kabul Airport, General Aminullah Amerkhel, has once again narrowly escaped arrest by officers acting under the orders of President Karzai’s rogue Attorney General, Abdul Jabar Sabet.

Amerkhel, supported by some the country’s leading lawmen and legislators, has been attempting to clear his name of unspecified allegations levelled at him by the Attorney General. Sabet’s suspension of Amerkhel last October triggered a reported surge in heroin smuggling at the airport. From as many as six arrests per week under Gen. Amerkhel, his replacement has managed only five arrests in the past six months.

The Toronto-destined shipment appears to have been intercepted only because of the smugglers’ extreme carelessness. According to two airport employees who witnessed the incident three weeks ago, a delivery truck belonging to a well-known international courier was stopped by a guard for a routine check. When the rear door was opened, the smell of heroin was instantly noticeable.

Six carpets were found, folded and wrapped for shipment. On closer inspection, each rug was discovered to contain approximately three kilograms of pure heroin, with granules of the drug sewn and knotted into the weave. A manifest showed the goods were to be shipped from Kabul to Dubai and then on to Canada.

No arrests have been made in connection with the seized carpets. According to one law enforcement source in the capital, the case will not be investigated further - for reasons which remain unexplained. In pure form, the 18 kilos would be worth about $1.8 million. However, once cut and sold by the gram, even at a relatively high purity of 40%, the haul might generate upwards of $6 million on the street.

Meanwhile, the abortive swoop by Attorney General Sabet’s officers on Gen. Amerkhel’s home has ratcheted up the confrontation between the two men. Amerkhel’s wife and seven children were frightened by the forced search of their home. The general was elsewhere, safely in the protection of security forces loyal to the speaker of Afghanistan’s Senate.

There, an enraged Amerkhel addressed a news conference the day after the raid. He tells skyreporter: “It’s Sabet who should be investigated. Who benefits from me being removed from my post? The drug gangs.” The general vows to see the crisis through and return to work against the traffickers.

Sabet mysteriously clings to his position, despite the controversy generated by this and several other of his barnstorming prosecutions. His violent police raid of Tolo TV in April – and his continuing efforts to arrest journalists connected to the incident – have made the Attorney General a symbol of the Karzai regime's careless irresponsibility.

Sabet’s dismissal has been widely forecast by both parliamentary and police observers, yet President Karzai has been slow to act - not surprising, perhaps, given the silence among the president’s international sponsors.

The government of Canada, for instance, has made no public statement regarding either the Tolo TV raid or the ongoing trafficking scandal at the airport.

And Canada’s Foreign Affairs department is steadfastly maintaining its secrecy regarding Sabet’s boast of Canadian residency. His wife and children currently live in Montreal, while other relatives reside in Toronto.