In Southwest Asia, opium poppy cultivation rose significantly in 1995. Most of the increase came from Afghanistan, where USG surveys show a 33 percent increase in poppy cultivation over the 1993-94 figures. Afghan opium is the source of much of Europe's heroin. Sophisticated Pakistani trafficking organizations operating out of Quetta, Pakistan, smuggle heroin base and morphine out of Afghanistan to the international market. These groups place orders with the Afghani processors and arrange for transshipment of the drugs from Afghanistan through Pakistan and to Iranian or Turkish buyers who move it through Iran and into international drug channels.
Most Afghan opium is destined for processing into heroin in Turkey.
The finished heroin is sold primarily in Europe, and to a lesser extent, in the United States. In Pakistan, opium poppy cultivation dropped from 7,270 hectares in 1994 to 6,950 hectares at the end of 1995. Over 1,600 hectares were eradicated in a major opium poppy eradication campaign. The Golden Triangle area of Southeast Asia had a record year, with estimated total potential opium production exceeding 4,000 metric tons. Poppy cultivation was up in Burma and Laos, but dropped in China and Thailand.