(MENAFN- IANS) Kabul, Oct 2 (IANS) Police have discovered illegal drugs of opium poppy in the western Afghanistan Herat province and took into custody two persons on charges of involvement in the drug business, provincial police spokesman Ghulam Nabi Babizada said on Thursday.

The alleged drug smugglers were busy selling 20 kg of opium poppy when police arrested them red-handed, the official said, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Both the arrested persons have been taken into police custody for investigation, the official further said.

Police won't allow anyone to produce or smuggle illegal drugs elsewhere in the province, the official asserted.

On September 24, a provincial police office said police had discovered and destroyed two drug processing labs in southern Afghanistan's Uruzgan province.

Acting on a tip-off, the counter-narcotics police raided specific places in Charchino and Chori districts and destroyed two drug processing labs, the statement said.

Police also discovered and set on fire more than 3 tonnes of different kinds of illegal objects used in manufacturing heroin, the statement said.

Police also took into custody three individuals on charges of involvement in the drug business and, after preliminary investigations, handed them over to the judiciary, the statement added.

Earlier in the drive against illegal drugs, police discovered 210 kg of opium poppy in the northern Baghlan and eastern Ghazni provinces and arrested four alleged drug smugglers.

On September 16, police unearthed a drug processing lab in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province and detained five individuals, a spokesman for the provincial police office, Ehsanullah Kamgar, said.

Acting on a tip-off, the counter-narcotics police raided a place in Darayem district Monday morning and discovered the drug processing lab along with 170 kg of processed opium poppy, which was ready to turn into heroin, the official said, adding that five persons were arrested from the site.

The Afghan government has intensified its nationwide campaign against narcotics, targeting traffickers, cultivators, and production networks, with a commitment to eradicate poppy farming and heroin manufacturing.

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