DUSHANBE, July 10, 2008, Asia-Plus — Since the beginning of this year, officers from the Tajik Drug Control Agency (DCA) offices in Afghanistan in cooperation with Afghan law enforcement agencies have seized nearly one ton of drugs and discovered four heroin-producing facilities in Afghanistan, the first deputy director of the DCA, Vaysiddin Azamatov, announced at a press conference in Dushanbe on July 10.
He assessed the level of interaction between the Tajik and Afghan law enforcement agencies in fighting the illicit drug trafficking as satisfactory. According to him, a July 9 meeting with visiting Afghan interior minister focused on ways of further expansion of cooperation between the Tajik counternarcotics agency and the Afghan law enforcement agencies in combating drug trafficking.
Azamatov confirmed yesterday’s statement of the Afghan Minister of Interiors Zarar Ahmad Moqbil that production of drugs had been eradicated completely in 22 of 34 Afghan provinces. “For example, a considerable reduction in production of drugs was reported in the Afghan province of Badakhshan last year,” said the drug control official. “In the provinces of Kunduz and Takhar, no cases of drug productions were reported last year.”
According to him, an active campaign on eradication of poppy crops is under way in Afghanistan.
In January-June 2008, officers from the counternarcotics agency have warded off 52 attempts of smuggling drugs into the country. Over the report period, the drug control officers have seized 952 kilograms of drugs, including which 241 kilograms of heroin, 426 kilograms, etc.
