Afghanistan's poppy crop, the largest in the region, declined marginally. Pakistan 's cultivation, on the other hand, fell by more than half following extension of the poppy ban in the Northwest Frontier Provinces. Afghan opium is the source of most 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, while a limited quantity goes to the United States Southwest Asian heroin continues to pour into Europe along the Balkan Route. Turkish trafficking groups, with distributors in ethnic enclaves in major European cities, control much of the Balkan Route heroin trade. Russia is playing an increasingly pivotal role in Europe and Central Asia. Criminal organizations that had successfully operated under the Soviet regime entered the post-Cold War era with smuggling and distribution networks already in place. They can use their networks to move Southwest Asian heroin through Central Asia to Russia and then onto destinations in the Baltics and Western Europe.