Juma Khan

Who is Juma Khan?

Haji Juma Khan, an ethnic Baluch from Afghanistan’s Nimroz Province, is a drug lord with links to the Taliban. The title Haji indicates that he has completed the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

Juma Khan, an illiterate provincial drug smuggler in southwestern Afghanistan in the 1990s, when the Taliban governed the country, seized control of the town of Baramcha in the Chagai Hills on the Pakistani border in late 2001 and turned it into a hub of smuggling and gun running. He rose to national prominence after the American-led invasion, taking advantage of a record surge in opium and heroin production in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. He was briefly detained by American forces after the 2001 fall of the Taliban, and released, even though American officials knew at the time that he was involved in narcotics trafficking. After being release Juma Khan has allegedly gone on to run the Taliban's opium distribution network, selling the drug worldwide and using the profits to equip Taliban forces militarily.

In 2008 he was arrested in Indonesia and transported to New York to face charges under a new American narco-terrorism law.