Overview
- Washington Post reporting says the CIA ran a covert effort from 2004 to 2015 to disperse low-alkaloid poppy seeds across Afghanistan to dilute opium yields.
- The operation is attributed to the CIA’s Crime and Narcotics Center, with sources describing billions of seeds bred to produce less of the opium-making alkaloids.
- Seeds were reportedly released in late autumn during nighttime flights, initially using British C-130 transport aircraft to avoid detection.
- The program was highly compartmented, with some senior Pentagon and State Department officials said to be unaware or only faintly aware of it.
- Former officials recalled periods when the tactic seemed effective, but no public metrics exist, and UN data show Afghan opium output rose by about 20% last year after an initial post-2021 drop under the Taliban ban.