On 12-13 May 2009, UNODC's Regional Office for Central Asia and the Country Office for Afghanistan convened a High Level Planning Session to launch Operation TARCET II, an anti-trafficking initiative to prevent the smuggling of chemicals to Afghanistan for use in the illicit manufacture of heroin
The aim of the session was to build on the successes achieved during Operation TARCET in 2008, review the results, experiences and lessons learned and launch further joint actions for preventing the smuggling of chemicals to Afghanistan within this operational framework. Specific law enforcement actions and timeframes were agreed to and activities in this regard will commence shortly.. During 2008, operational activities resulted in seizures of over 19 tonnes of acetic anhydride (14 tonnes in Pakistan, 5 tonnes in the Islamic Republic of Iran and 500 kilogrammes in Afghanistan) as well as over 27 tones of other chemicals (6.8 tonnes of sulphuric acid in Kyrgyzstan, 1.6 tonnes of acetic acid in Uzbekistan, 16 tonnes of acetyl chloride in Iran and 3 tonnes of diverse chemicals in Afghanistan). With UNODC providing the platform for activities, financial support was received from Canada, the European Commission and United States through existing UNODC precursor projects in the region and technical assistance was provided by France, Germany, Italy, Russian Federation, Turkey and UNODC/World Customs Organization. The acetic anhydride seized is sufficient to produce more than 9 tones of heroin, with a retail value of over US$600,000,000.00 in illicit European drug markets.
The session was attended by over 60 delegates from 27 countries, international and regional organizations, including Afghanistan, China, Germany, France, India, IR of Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States, as well as EC-BOMCA, CARICC, EC, Europol, Interpol, OSCE and WCO.