DUSHANBE, April 23, 2010, Asia-Plus — Measures that are being taken by international organizations and international collation forces in Afghanistan to fight the drug threat are insufficient and have not yielded desirable results and this fact evokes our concern, Aleksandr Manilov, the chief of the Coordination Service within the Council of CIS Border Troops Commanders, remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe yesterday, following the 63rd session of the Council.
The opium poppy cultivation areas have increased and the number of attempts to smuggle drugs via borders has continued to increase, Manilov noted.
Dwelling on proposals to destroy the opium poppy cultivation areas, he pointed to the necessity of making world-wide decisions on destruction of the opium poppy plantations and prevention of precursor deliveries. “However many we detained drug couriers in Afghanistan or Turkmenistan we will not solve the drug trafficking problem. It is necessary to take complex measures, it is necessary to make decisions on destruction of opium poppy plantations and prevention of precursor deliveries on a world scale,” Manilov said.
He stressed that there were no components for production of heroin in Afghanistan itself, however, nearly one ton of precursors was being smuggled into that country every year.
In this connection, Manilov underlined the significance of carrying out joint operations to fight drug trafficking that would allow exposing the whole chain of the drug trafficking business – “from the place of production of narcotics to the place of realization of them.”
