Mazari-I-Sharif/UNI: The Afghan police have arrested two drug smugglers in Afghanistan's northern Balkh province, provincial police spokesman Mohammad Asif Waziri said on Tuesday.

The alleged smugglers were selling a Kalashnikov rifle, 29 kg of opium poppy, 447 grams of heroin and objects used in manufacturing heroin in Balkh provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif city on Monday when police personnel spotted and took them into custody.

In a similar operation, police discovered and destroyed a drug processing lab and arrested 12 persons on the charge of involvement in the drug business in the western Ghor province on Sunday.

The Taliban-run administration has banned poppy cultivation and vowed to crack down on illicit drugs and trafficking.