On the streets of Sangin, it is business as usual for the opium wholesalers and brokers. "We buy it from the farmers here and then we take it to the Iranian border", comments one local dealer. At $800 a kilo, opium is too lucrative to ignore and the traders are relieved the Americans show no intention of closing down their operations. "You take away opium and you suck the oxygen out of this economy", says Michael Ware of Time magazine. "You'll be treading on the toes of significant military and political figures who have built empires around the opium trade." Haji Bashar is the most powerful drug lord in Southern Afghanistan. His drug empire helped finance the Taliban, and today, he quite literally owns Kandahar. Each new administration faces the choice of taking Bashir on - or making a deal. On January 23rd 2002, after surrendering his private army, Bashir struck a deal with the Americans. "He now provides much needed military muscle that this relatively weak Governor needs", comments Ware. The Americans for their part received intelligence - he is now proving pivotal in the surrenders of Taliban commanders. In return, the US military is prepared to turn a blind eye to his activities - meaning no interruption to the flow of drugs from Afghanistan across into central Asia and Europe. While virtually 95% of the heroin and opium reaching European cities is from Afghanistan, virtually none of it ends up in America.

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