<p>Business is booming for the Taliban, which gets up to 60% of its money through Afghanistan&rsquo;s opium supply chain. ;</p>
<p>According to the UN&rsquo;s Office on Drugs and Crime, opium production in Afghanistan has increased by 46% since 2015. In 2016, the opium economy made up a full quarter of Afghanistan&#8217;s GDP. ;</p>
<p>According to reports, the Taliban are building more and more drug labs so that opium can be refined into heroin and morphine before it leaves the country. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The ability to smuggle out refined product explodes the bottom line for the terrorist group fueling its ongoing insurgency against the US-backed Afghan government,&rdquo; reports <em>The Daily Caller. ;</em></p>
<p>This trend comes alongside a further weakening of the Afghan government, which now controls only 60% of the country. The other 40% is controlled by the Taliban. ; ;</p>
<p>This instability is great for opium growers. It prevents military and law enforcement from destroying crops and it allows them to use the Taliban as their private security force. ;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Taliban is also raking in money through ;illegal mining, smuggling precious stones, and kidnapping for ransom. According to UN estimates, the group makes over $10 million per year through unlicensed marble mining. ;</p>
<p>This cash flow ;has transformed some Taliban factions into &ldquo;mafia-like crime syndicates&rdquo; that are more motivated by money than by religion, reports the UN.</p>
<p>As long as the Taliban&rsquo;s money pipelines continue to flow, there is little hope that the Afghanistan government will be able to tame the insurgency. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;If an illiterate local Taliban commander in Hemland makes a million dollars a month now, what does he gain in time of peace?&rdquo; said one senior Afghan official.</p>
<p>The Trump Administration has promised to keep ;US soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan until conditions improve, but conditions will not improve unless we can interrupt the Taliban&#8217;s cash flow. ;</p>
<p>The Taliban&rsquo;s reliance on drug production should be United States&rsquo; primary interest in Afghanistan. If we destroy the drug trade, we destroy the Taliban.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Without drugs, this war would have been long over,&#8221; said Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. &ldquo;The heroin is a very important driver of this war.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Editor&#8217;s note: This is the same pattern we saw in Colombia, the FARC supported by Pablo Escobar and the Ochoa&#8217;s. You can&#8217;t enforce laws in a region where the police are not in control. Instability is the friend of illegal drug traffickers.</p>