Andrés Efren Montalvo Sosa, head of the UN Sanctions Committee said on Thursday (December 12) that a number of key Taliban officials are complicit in drug cartels and production and trafficking networks.

However, according to Sosa, the Taliban leadership encourages ordinary Afghan farmers to cultivate alternatives.

Sosa, who is also Ecuador's ambassador to the United Nations, said at Thursday's Security Council meeting on Afghanistan, citing the 15th report of the UN Sanctions Monitoring Team, that the drug trade and production in Afghanistan remains the main source of the country's GDP.

Addressing the members of the UN Security Council, he said, "A number of key Taliban officials are deeply involved in drug cartels as well as drug trafficking networks. Meanwhile, ordinary Afghan farmers have been pushed to alternative cultivation."

In his statement, Sosa also referred to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), according to which drug cultivation and production in Afghanistan has increased by 30%. The report also states that the geography of drug cultivation has changed from the southwest to the northeast of Afghanistan in 2024.

However, Sosa said the rate of drug production is lower than the level that existed in 2022, before the Taliban leadership issued a decree banning it.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) had earlier announced that opium production in Afghanistan has increased by 30% in 2024 compared to the previous year. According to the statistics of this office, contrary to the orders of the Taliban leader, 433 tons of opium were produced in Afghanistan this year.

The office said that despite a 30% increase in opium production in 2024, opium production shows a 93% decrease compared to 2022, before the Taliban leader's decree banning the cultivation and production of narcotics.

However, the Taliban's Interior Ministry rejected the UN report on the increase in opium production, calling it far from reality.