WP reveals failure of secret CIA opium-reduction mission in Afghanistan
World
The Washington Post has disclosed details of a nearly two-decade covert CIA operation in Afghanistan aimed at altering the genetic makeup of poppy plants and cutting off a key source of Taliban financing. The program, despite its scale and ambition, ultimately failed.
According to The Washington Post, the CIA conducted a classified operation in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2015. Approved through a secret presidential directive during the George W. Bush administration, the program sought to undermine the country’s opiate production.
The agency carried out night flights, during which transport aircraft dispersed billions of specially selected poppy seeds over Afghan fields. These seeds, bred through natural selection, produced plants with extremely low levels of alkaloids needed for heroin production. The strategy relied on these varieties eventually cross-pollinating with local strains and displacing them.
However, the plan produced no measurable impact. A 2018 report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), prepared without knowledge of the classified mission, concluded that none of the U.S. or partner-led initiatives had achieved sustained reductions in poppy cultivation or opium output.
UNODC estimates show that by the early 2020s, Afghanistan’s poppy economy accounted for 9–14% of national GDP — between $1.8 billion and $2.7 billion annually.
The newly revealed information underscores that U.S. efforts to curb Afghanistan’s opium industry failed to produce lasting change, and the CIA’s long-running secret operation had no significant effect on the country’s narcotics-driven economy.
The agency carried out night flights, during which transport aircraft dispersed billions of specially selected poppy seeds over Afghan fields. These seeds, bred through natural selection, produced plants with extremely low levels of alkaloids needed for heroin production. The strategy relied on these varieties eventually cross-pollinating with local strains and displacing them.
However, the plan produced no measurable impact. A 2018 report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), prepared without knowledge of the classified mission, concluded that none of the U.S. or partner-led initiatives had achieved sustained reductions in poppy cultivation or opium output.
UNODC estimates show that by the early 2020s, Afghanistan’s poppy economy accounted for 9–14% of national GDP — between $1.8 billion and $2.7 billion annually.
The newly revealed information underscores that U.S. efforts to curb Afghanistan’s opium industry failed to produce lasting change, and the CIA’s long-running secret operation had no significant effect on the country’s narcotics-driven economy.
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