DUSHANBE, June 6, Asia-Plus – Tajikistan has headed a group set up in Central and South Asia for control over precursors used for production of heroin.
Avaz Yuldoshev, a spokesman for the Tajik Drug Control Agency (DCA), told Asia-Plus that Tajikistan was proposed to head this group at the 4th meeting of the working group for security in fighting drug trafficking in the region, which was held in Vienna, Austria, from May 31 to June 1.
According to him, the Vienna meeting also made a decision on accepting Germany, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the working group.
The Vienna meeting participants included chiefs of counternarcotics agencies from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, as well as representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the NATO, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) acting in Afghanistan, the UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the OSCE, and European Marshall Center.
Tajikistan was represented at the meeting by the DCA Director Rustam Nazarov and Deputy Interior Minister Sharif Nazarov.
Tajik law enforcement officials introduced a motion at the meeting that during carrying out of joint conternarcotics operations, international experts should be sent to the countries bordering on Afghanistan to control the operations and provide practical assistance with carrying out of them, according to Yuldoshev.
Despite the fact that Tajikistan has a long common border with Afghanistan, no case of removal of precursors outside it has been reported, the spokesman said.
