The Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) is specialist force under the Afghan Ministry of the Interior. The CNPA is the lead agency for counter narcotics investigations in Afghanistan and has an establishment of some 3000 officers. Candidates for the 5-week long Counter Narcotics Course must have completed an 8-week basic police course and are carefully selected.
The busiest and most successful CNPA unit in Afghanistan is situated in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand Province. The United Kingdom funds a retired police officer to work in the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team to assist the CNPA with their training and development programme. The operations advisor for Helmand CNPA is a senior British military officer who provides guidance on intelligence-led operations and also accompanies the CNPA on interdiction operations throughout Helmand Province, providing direction on evidence gathering and intelligence exploitation.
The Director of the Helmand Counter Narcotics Police is Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Qadir. In addition to seizing drugs and arresting those involved in drug trafficking, Lt Col Qadir's team targets those involved in facilitating heroin production, including opium dealers and suppliers/distributors of precursor chemicals.
Famous quotes containing the words counter, narcotics and/or police:
“Family traditions counter alienation and confusion. They help us define who we are; they provide something steady, reliable and safe in a confusing world.”
—Susan Lieberman (20th century)
“It is not heroin or cocaine that makes one an addict, it is the need to escape from a harsh reality. There are more television addicts, more baseball and football addicts, more movie addicts, and certainly more alcohol addicts in this country than there are narcotics addicts.”
—Shirley Chisholm (b. 1924)
“Oh, yes, everything’s fine. I always stop by the police station in the middle of the night to pick up my daughter.”
—Theodore Simonson. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.. Mr. Martin, The Blob, when he comes to pick up Jane (1958)