Border guards have reportedly thwarted an attempt of smuggling a large amount of narcotics out of Afghanistan into Tajikistan.
According to the press center of the Main Border Guard Directorate at the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), Tajik border guards on a routine patrol spotted a group of armed drug traffickers who were illegally crossing the border river in Darvoz district of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO).
When border guards tried to detain the trespassers, the latter opened fire at them. The border guards opened retaliatory fire and the trespassers were forced to return to the Afghan territory.
Thirty-one kilograms of raw opium and an inflatable boat were reportedly found on the spot.
According to data from the SCNS Main Border Guard Directorate, last year saw thirty-one engagements between Tajik border guards and armed drug smugglers on the Tajik-Afghan border. Eighteen trespassers were reportedly killed and twenty others were detained.
In 2017, Tajik border guards jointly with servicemen of other Tajik power-wielding structures reportedly carried out seventy-four special operations, including forty-six special operations carried out in cooperation with the SCNS officers.
Last year, Tajik border guards jointly with representatives of other Tajik power-wielding structures seized 1,740.3 kilograms of narcotic drugs. A totaled reportedly included 27.3 kilograms of heroin, 455.6 kilograms of raw opium, 865.7 kilograms of hashish, 386.8 kilograms of cannabis and 4.9 kilograms of methamphetamine.
Besides, Tajik border guards seized twenty-five firearms, 605 bullets of different caliber and nine hand grenades last year.
Afghanistan Opium Survey 2017 by UNODC says that opium cultivation in Afghanistan last year reached a record high with an estimated 328,000 hectares, up 63 per cent compared with 201,000 hectares in 2016.
According to the survey report released by UNODC on May 21 this year, last year's record levels of production has led to unprecedented levels of potential heroin production. From the 2017 opium harvest, some 550-900 tons of heroin of export quality (purity between 50 and 70 per cent) can be produced.
The report highlights that the levels of opium poppy cultivation create multiple challenges for the country, its neighbors and the many other countries that are transit for or destination of Afghan opiates.
