DUSHANBE, May 28, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s ministry of interior (MoI) denies report released by some Russian media that more than 430 kilos of heroin seized in Moscow had been transported from Tajikistan as “unfounded.”
High-ranking source at a MoI told Asia-Plus that Russian journalists had hurried releasing report that the drugs had allegedly been transported to Moscow from Tajikistan.
According to him, he got in touch with senior representatives from Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) and they said that the truck with drugs stopped in Moscow had been moving from Uzbekistan.
“According to our data, of four detained people, three are citizens of Uzbekistan and one is citizen of Kazakhstan,” the Asia-Plus interlocutor said.
“Our Russian colleagues have promised to release an official statement with correction on this subject,” the source said.
We will recall that Russia’s RIA Novosti on May 25 quoted Moscow’s counternarcotics service chief Viktor Khvorostyan reported as saying that a shipment of heroin weighing over 430 kilos, the largest drug haul ever seen in Russia, has been seized in Moscow. “With that amount, the traffickers could have prepared over six tons of street drugs worth over nine billion rubles (equivalent to around $360 million),” Viktor Khvorostyan said, adding that four people have been detained. He said the heroin, along with some three kilos of hashish, was transported to Moscow from Tajikistan in the secret compartment of a truck.
“This particular criminal group, which has been involved in delivering heroin to Moscow and St. Petersburg, came to the attention of our anti-narcotics agents at the end of last year,” Khvorostyan said. “In April, we received information that a major shipment of narcotics would soon be delivered by truck as part of a convoy transporting cabbage.”
He said the truck was tailed from the border of Kazakhstan and stopped in Moscow last week, where a search revealed 197 packages of heroin weighing over 2 kilos (4.4 pounds) each.
“This heroin is of extremely high quality,” Khvorostyan said. “It was intended for distribution in Moscow and St. Petersburg. We also know that Europe was one of the group”s targets.”
