KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The DEA has significantly increased their numbers in Afghanistan in recent months, sending in elite special operations teams to take down Taliban drug kingpins in a bid to deny funds to the opium-fueled insurgency.

They've been very successful, capturing or killing dozens of criminals and taking millions in drugs off the world market.

But it's a risky business - as this week's tragedy showed.

Acting on intelligence provided by the DEA, a joint American-Afghan special missions unit hit a Taliban stronghold in western Afghanistan, killing almost two dozen enemy fighters.

During the extraction, one helicopter crashed with 36 aboard, killing 10 and wounding more than a dozen others.

Despite the risks, a DEA agent spoke with CBN News. He wanted his identity to be concealed, but was wounded in Monday's crash and said being in Afghanistan is worth the cost.

"Nothing makes me feel better than to know that I'm doing something to hurt the insurgency. I'm a New Yorker by birth, and I was there during 9/11, and so I'll never forget that."