An increase in heroin trafficking into the United Kingdom is creating problems for law enforcement.
From The Times:
The agency leading Britain’s fight against organised crime is struggling to cope with the soaring scale of heroin trafficking, it admitted yesterday.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) claimed it was making headway in tackling fraud, gun-running and the cocaine [...]

According to the United States Department of State, the export value of Afghanistan’s 2006 opium export was $3.1 billion.
Source: 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, “Southwest Asia: Afghanistan,” United States Department of State, March 2007.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates the total value of the global opium and heroin market to be valued at $64.82 billion.
Number of heroin users worldwide: 11.1 million.
Source: United Nations, ” 2005 World Drug Report,” Office on Drugs and Crime, June 2005, pg. 132.

Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, “Illicit Drug Trends in the Russian Federation,” April 2008. 

28.7 percent of opium farmers claimed poverty alleviation as the reason for growing opium in Afghanistan. 
Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, “Illicit Drug Trends in Afghanistan,” April 2008. 

4 percent of the population, or 920,000 people, are estimated drug users in Afghanistan.
Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, “Illicit Drug Trends in Afghanistan,” April 2008.

Opium poppy cultivation has increased on average by 34 percent every year since the Taliban was disposed of in 2001.
Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, “Illicit Drug Trends in Afghanistan,” April 2008.
 

In 2005, available estimates of the North Korean drug trade placed opium production at 44 tons a year.
Source: Matthew Quirk, “The world in numbers: The New Opium War,” The Atlantic Monthly, March 2005, pg. 52-53.

According to the 2006 International Narcotic Control Strategy, there are an estimated 3 million opiate users in Iran, with “60 percent reported as addicted to various opiates and 40 percent reported as casual users.”
Source: United States Department of State, 2006 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, “Africa and the Middle East”, March 2006.

Burma/Myanmar is the world’s second largest producer of illicit opium after Afghanistan, accounting for more than 90 percent of heroin in Southeast Asia.
Source: United States Department of State, “2006 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report,” Southeast Asia: Burma, March 2006.