In this episode we look at the dramatic fall of Haji Abdul Zaher Qadir, once a powerful Afghan commander and politician, now facing drug trafficking charges in the United States, after being arrested at a hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, in April 2025. Haji Zaher, as he’s best known, was a prominent police commander and parliamentarian and was accused, multiple times, throughout the Islamic Republic era of drug smuggling, running private militias and land-grabbing. In this episode of AANCAST, Rachel Reid reads her account of Zaher’s fall from grace, as well as diving into the history of sting operations by the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
Haji Zaher with members of his local militia, which at the time was slated to be incorporated into the Territorial Army. Photo: Haji Qadir Zaher via Facebook, 12 February 2016
Duration: 26 minutes
Available on Apple Podcasts here
Revisions:
This article was last updated on 11 Nov 2025
Tags:
Afghanistan
DrugWar
Taliban
