SKorean police bust 'Taliban-linked' drug ring (AFP)

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean police said Friday they have arrested members of a major drug-trafficking ring with suspected links to Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents. "Police have rounded up a drug-trafficking ring involving Afghans and Pakistanis who are suspected of being linked with the Taliban," a National Police Agency spokesman told AFP. "They are suspected to trying to smuggle raw materials for heroin production into Afghanistan," he said. Police said two Afghans, three Pakistanis and four Koreans tried to use South Korea as a shipping point for several tons of acetic anhydride destined for southern Afghanistan. The chemical is heated with morphine, extracted from opium, to produce heroin. "The key Afghan suspect admitted he did it at the instigation of the Taliban," Oh Ki-Duk, an investigator, told AFP. "But he claimed... [read full story]