Afghanistan wants end to smuggling lapis lazuli

melbourne - Afghanistan want the Taliban to prevent smuggling the precious stone lapis lazuli and to earn money. The government therefore private scholarship for selling the stone, which for thousands of years is traded from the Hindu Kush mountain range in the northeast of the country.

The extremist movement is increasingly financed by criminal activities such as smuggling of lapis lazuli, rubies and emeralds, heroin trafficking and kidnappings.

The gemstones smuggling Afghanistan annually costs roughly 93 million euros, said the Minister of Mines Daud Saba at a conference in the Australian city of Melbourne.

The blue gem is bad in one mine won, making smuggling easier to bring under control.