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WASHINGTON — The CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency have concluded that the amount of drug money flowing to the Taliban in Afghanistan is far lower than widely estimated but remains important to the insurgents, said a Senate report released Tuesday.
The two spy agencies believe that Taliban leaders receive about $70 million a year from Afghanistan’s lucrative poppy crop, far lower than the $400 million estimate released last year by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
The estimates suggest other avenues of funding — including money from wealthy donors in the Persian Gulf region — remain important sources of support for insurgent and terrorist networks on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
