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Video: Drug and weapons
seizure in Afghanistan

by Jess Banham

Afghan police working together
with Kent-based soldiers have discovered a drug
stash worth more than £17.5 million in Helmand Province.

They found several bags of wet opium
- which is the first stage of producing heroin - when
they swooped on the address of a man suspected of illegally
selling Government-owned land in the northern part of Nahr-e Saraj
district.

training course

1pwrr also head a training course for patrolmen to learn how to take command of their checkpoints.

more than 200 police now take it compared with the eight who started.

cpt stuart barker said: "they learn a lot of technical skills which enable them to be very professional on the ground."

"also there are a number of behavioural skills we give them around the ethics and the way they go about their job."

The police and their partners
from the 1 Battalion The Princess of Wales’s Royal
Regiment (1PWRR), who have a base in Canterbury, also found a
room hidden under a trapdoor – where dozens more bags of the drug
were hidden away.

The total haul weighed in at more than
175kg of wet opium - One kilogramme of pure heroin has a street
value between £30,000 to £100,000 but the drug is often diluted to
less than five percent.

The team also found two machine guns,
a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) launcher, and several AK-47
rifles, along with two pistols, possible components for Improvised
Explosive Devices (IEDs), and imitation ANSF uniforms.

Captain Stuart Barker, 45, from 3rd
Battalion Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, said: "We then
arrested somebody who is known to be a major drugs lord and war
lord with known connections to the Taliban."

A 15-man Police Advisory Team, made up
of soldiers from the 1PWRR works at each Afghan police
headquarters across Task Force Helmand to help guide the
police.

Cpt Barker, who used to be work
for Kent police added: "Part of the process is making
sure that they don't just arrest people and seize drugs and weapons
but that they are also able to gather enough evidence to support a
successful prosecution... so clearly a lot of what we have been
doing has been about making sure they gather enough evidence at the
scene."

Lieutenant Colonel James Coote is the
commanding officer of 1st Battalion the Princess of Wales's Royal
Regiment.

He said: "This was a significant
operation, both in terms of the weapons captured and
drugs seized. It is important to note that this was an Afghan
police operation from start to finish and it is further evidence of
the police's ability to operate and enforce the Afghan law."

For more on the 1PWRR in
Afghanistan