HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan- The members of the National Interdiction Unit, a group of Afghan special forces, stand side-by-side with Marines of 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment as they prepare for their next mission during rehearsals, March 13.
Their target is a building they suspect is being used to traffic opium. The NIU are a part of Central Narcotics Police Afghanistan, and their goal is to stop the illegal drug trade in their country. The raid they are preparing for is one of many the NIU team has conducted during their time in Helmand province.
“I wanted to do something to help my people and my country,” said Capt. Farouk, the NIU team commanding officer. “Narcotics are a big problem for Afghanistan. Our main goal is to get rid of any narcotics in our country and punish the smugglers.”
The mission is one of many Afghan-led operations intended to crack down on illegal drug trafficking in Afghanistan.
“The insurgency here uses the opium trade to fund their operations,” said Sgt. James Mobley, scout sniper team leader. “It’s vitally important that we get rid of these drug processing facilities to make it harder for drug traffickers to conduct operations.”
Mobley said that the Afghan forces are taking the lead in the operations to shut down the facilities.
“The NIU go into these compounds. They are also the ones sweeping through, gathering evidence and detaining any of the enemy they find on site,” Mobley said. “Our job is to keep them safe while they are doing their jobs inside.”
Farouk said that the rehearsals are an important part of preparing for the mission.
“When we get to our objective on the mission, we want to do our work as quickly as possible,” he said. “Through better training it is easier to find these smugglers who are trying to bring harm to Afghanistan.”
The NIU and Marines have already had great successes in the fight against illegal drug trade. The combined efforts of the Marines and NIU team resulted in the destruction of more than 6,000-pounds of narcotics in the past month.
“They’re having a huge impact on the insurgency’s ability to move drugs and weapons back and forth,” Mobley said.
Farouk and his men take pride in the work they are doing for their country.
“NIU is a special operations force and we have a very bright future,” Farouk said. “We always have training going on when we aren’t working. We want to be the best of the best.”
Farouk said that he hopes the impact of the hard work he and his men do isn’t just felt in Afghanistan.
“When people use these drugs they are throwing their lives away,” he said. “When these narcotics get to people in other countries the drugs are ruining their futures. We want to help those people too.”
Even though Farouk and the other members of the NIU have been successful so far, he said that he hasn’t reached his goal yet.
“There is always room to improve,” Farouk said. “My goal is that one day Afghanistan will be completely free of drugs.“