Alongside it on the shelf of a tiny shop in the bazaar at Bagram is a “special sex” gel as well as distinctive blue Viagra pills that are almost impossible to find in the regular pharmacies of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

The bazaar at Bagram, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Kabul and a few hundred metres (feet) from the country’s biggest US military base, is stocked with a range of similarly risque Asian and American products that arrive via Pakistan.

It is a regular Ali Baba’s cave — and the 40 thieves are probably not far away for among the goods on sale, which include routine items such as food, hygiene products and clothes, are some “from inside” that have somehow made it off the base through layers of security.

“We get them from inside the base and we sell them more cheaply, both to Afghans and to the international soldiers, but we make the foreigners pay more,” says Obaid, who has been working here for eight months.

He offers some apparently authentic Oakley brand sunglasses at a tenth of the real price. He is not interested in making a profit, he says, because he is not the owner of the shop.

“I earn about 100 dollars a month. What I would like is to work inside the base because even as a housekeeper I would get at least 300 dollars,” he said.

Some of the items are innocent enough, such as toothpaste and razor blades. Others are more unusual considering the context and include food supplements for bodybuilding, walking sticks and a Christmas tree with lights.

There are new sports shoes, though they are fakes, and used ones that are genuine and probably sold by or stolen from their owners, along with folding camp beds for just 15 dollars each.

Prices, already low, are always negotiable especially if one is accompanied by an Afghan.

Another shopkeeper, Ali Mohammad, smiles and offers soft drinks popular with US soldiers. In a corner is a palette of non-alcoholic beer, the only kind the soldiers are allowed to drink and which also comes “from inside”.

Not everything comes from the base, however, with some of the stuff on sale, including military equipment, said to have been intercepted on the road to Bagram from the Pakistan port where they are offloaded in containers.

Either in the tribal zones on the Pakistan side, or in the famous Khyber Pass in Afghanistan, truck drivers are regularly held up by Pashtun tribesmen who sometimes steal entire loads.

Most of the shops around the Bagram base display similar products — such as Leatherman Crunch tools for 20 dollars each (normal price 65-90 dollars) — leaving little doubt that they are from the same source.

The presence of some items causes concern, however, such as articles of US military uniforms, including sand-colored hiking books that still bear the name of their former owners.

If you need a different size, the salesman takes just five minutes to come up with another pair that he offers to sell for less than 30 dollars.

“Sometimes the Afghan authorities create problems for us, like asking where the shoes came from. That’s why I keep a lot of the merchandise with me,” said one shopkeeper as a convoy of US Humvees churned up dust on a road nearby oblivious to the questionable trade being conducted on the doorstep of the base.

Further along are US Army-issue camouflage trousers for 20 dollars, although the next shopkeeper is more cautious, saying: “Some people from television came and did a report and after that the police started putting their noses in our business.

“They confiscated some of our things which are they keeping for themselves,” he says in anger, holding in his hand a desert-colored US Army hat.

Nawed, who offers second-hand USB flash drives, said: “The Afghans who work inside the base take things out on the quiet. Sometimes they carry them on their bodies, sometimes they hide them in boxes.”

On his laptop, he flicks through the contents of some of the flash discs and it clear that whoever took them from their owners did not even bother to erase the contents.

One, bought for just a handful of dollars, contains US military documents marked “not to be made public” that advise soldiers working in Afghanistan against using terms like “islamo-fascism” or “clash of civilizations”.

Another file lists the names and numbers of officers in charge of military-led construction teams across the country.

A Word document lists the tasks one soldier wants to complete during his mission, including “getting all my team home safe and sound,” “training to improve my physical condition” and “reading the Bible every day”.

Tibor Liska pleaded guilty of selling by mail some 12,000 packets a month of sildenafil — a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction sold under various names, including Viagra — mixed with chocolate and herbs, US Attorney Michael Garcia said.

The “Boom” food supplements were distributed between March 2006 and November 2007 through the Yoi Jin Sei company in the United States, Australia, Colombia, Switzerland, Russia, Argentina, Japan and Slovakia, Garcia added.

The publicity surrounding the product said it contained plant-based food supplements, without specifying that it contained a drug that requires a prescription and could have side effects.

Liska was charged with mail fraud and could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years behind bars and fined up to 250,000 dollars if found guilty, Garcia said.

He is due for trial on July 25.

“This has to do with quality of life and it’s done responsibly. It’s not just like handing out candy at the corner,” Gonzalo Navarrete, a physician and mayor of the poor town of Lo Prado south of Santiago, told Las Ultimas Noticias daily.

He said any man 60 years and older who wants it can have up to four Viagra pills a month after undergoing a thorough medical exam to avoid potentially harmful side effects of the drug Sildenafil.

“We’ll give out four, 50 milligram pills, in other words, for four sexual relationships per month,” Navarrete said, adding that the program would have a starting cost of about 20,000 dollars.

The mayor said the idea for his unprecedented move came from hearing older men in his town complain about not getting enough sex.

He did have some advice, however, for the Viagra seekers: “Sildenafil doesn’t get you going without direct stimulation.”

Yu Bohuai made a profit of over 60,000 yuan ($8,585) in 2006 and 2007 by selling 14,030 fake tablets to clients abroad and in Shanghai. He was arrested last July.

Viagra is marketed by Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it to treat impotence in 1998.