Religious motivations and dreams of jihad aside, the Taleban of Afghanistan are reaping millions of dollars each year thanks to their involvement in the opium trade.

The BBC reported June 24 that the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that the Taleban earned $100 million in 2007 via a 10-percent tax on Afghan farmers, who cultivated an estimated $1-billion worth of opium last year.

The Taleban also made millions more by providing protection to opium labs and drug shipments, according to UNODC head Antonio Maria Costa.

Costa said that Afghanistan last year produced 8,000 tons of opium, twice the annual demand for the drug worldwide.

"The closer we look at it, the closer we see the insurgents [are] to the drugs trade," said David Belgrove, head of counternarcotics at the British embassy in Kabul. "We can say that a lot of their arms and ammunition are being funded directly by the drugs trade."