Kabul, Aug 11 (IANS): Two drug smugglers were arrested and more than 42 kg of opium poppy was seized from their possession in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province, a statement of the provincial police office said on Sunday.

In the first operation, which was conducted in the provincial capital Fayzabad city, police apprehended a drug dealer and seized 24.5 kg of opium poppy from his luggage on Saturday, the statement said, Xinhua news agency reported.

In similar operations against drug peddlers also in Badakhshan province, police nabbed a drug smuggler in Argo district on the same day and discovered nearly 18.38 kg of opium poppy in his possession, the statement said, adding both the arrested drug dealers were Afghans.

Similarly, police in an identical operation discovered and destroyed a drug processing lab in the Dilaram district of the western Nimroz province a week ago.

The Afghan caretaker government banned poppy cultivation, drug processing, and drug trafficking in April 2022 and since then, the administration has been fighting to eradicate Afghanistan from the drug menace.