A court in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district has sentenced a 30-year-old Mustafo Saifullo Saifullozoda, a native of Kulob and resident of the capital's Sino district, to 13 years in prison for trafficking a large quantity of narcotics.
According to a statement by the Public Relations Center of Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security (SCNS), published on the state-run Khovar news agency’s portal, Saifullozoda acted in collusion with an accomplice, an Afghan national identified as Hoji. In exchange for a substantial sum of money, the pair retrieved drugs from a hidden cache and transported them to Dushanbe in a private Toyota Corolla.
Saifullozoda concealed 31 kilograms of hashish in a separate hiding place located in the agricultural lands of the Juyibodom neighborhood in the capital. He was later apprehended during a special operation, and the drugs were seized by authorities.
An investigation was launched by the SCNS’s office in Khatlon province under Article 200 (4) of Tajikistan’s Criminal Code, which deals with the illegal trafficking of narcotic or psychotropic substances. Meanwhile, investigative actions are ongoing in relation to the Afghan suspect.
In 2024, Tajikistan’s law enforcement agencies reportedly confiscated over 4.3 tons of narcotics—approximately 17% or 901.5 kilograms less than the amount seized in 2023. Despite the drop in volume, the number of drug-related crimes increased, with 839 cases recorded in 2024—140 more than the previous year.
