Flower Power

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN, March 23, 2007— -- The men of Col. Fayyaz's Mobile Detection Labs gleefully set out their tools -- hammers, drills, flashlights, mirrors -- anything to quickly gut and expose the innards of a car.

His men have hacked more than 700 pounds of opium and heroin out of Afghan cars and trucks in the past year. They've had some luck at this checkpoint at the southern entrance to Afghanistan's capital

"We captured 47, 65, 100 kilo loads right here," says Fayyaz, bumming a cigarette from a reporter.

A few meaningless battles in an unwinnable war, Gen. Kemal Sadat, Afghanistan's embattled drug czar, calls those catches. Last year alone, Afghanistan produced 4,500 tons of opium, which is processed into heroin.

More than 90 percent of the world's heroin starts as a seed on an Afghan farm. And, at least locally, the proceeds go to arming the Taliban, says Sadat. Over the past three years, his men, officers like the potbellied Fayyaz, have captured and destroyed only 100 tons of the stuff.

Several tons of it are kept beneath Sadat's office behind a triple padlocked cage.

At the checkpoint, the sleet's coming down sideways. And Fayyaz's men rummage through each car that comes by. Sometimes, Ursullah, the German shepherd who only understands German commands, is dragged out to inspect the cars.

The agents of the Mobile Detection Laboratories are trained by British customs officials. Nicki Piper, a blond agent who is huddled in her coat, is one of them. "It really boils down to luck if they find anything. There are so many ways to smuggle narcotics in the country."

The weather and this country's rugged geography played a huge role in helping Afghans eject the forces from some of history's greatest empires, from the Mongols to Queen Victoria's Tommies to the Soviets. But this time, Afghanistan is being defeated by geography and weather.

That defeat is etched on Kemal Sadat's face. His brush mustache and hair are dyed. The white creeping out from the roots seems to show that he's given up on maintaining the illusion of youth.