DUSHANBE, August 15, Asia-Plus – More than 200 kilograms of drugs, with more than 80 kilograms of them being heroin, were intercepted and more than 336,000 bushes of wild hemp were destroyed by Tajik border guards and officers from the country’s interior ministry and the counternarcotics agency in a special five-day border operation dubbed “Marzbon 2006” (Board Guard 2006), Sharaf Fayzulloyev, the Tajik border service deputy chief, remarked at a briefing in Dushanbe on August 14.
According to him, 33 trespassers and 47 violators of border regime, as well as one alleged member of terrorist organization and 2 criminal wanted by police were detained within the framework of the “Marzbon 2006” Operation.
“Those five days have seen six engagements between Tajik border guards and armed drug smugglers on the Tajik-Afghan border. Two drug smugglers were killed and five others were injured,” said Mr. Fayzulloyev, “10 sub-machine-guns “Kalashnikov”, five carbines, four grenade launchers and a large amount of bullets of different caliber were seized in those skirmishes.”
Besides, they have warded off smuggling of more than 7,000 liters of gasoline and 7,000 tons diesel fuel and a large amount of other consumer goods in that operation, according to him.
In Tajikistan, the “Marzbon 2006” Operation involved 7,850 officers and soldiers from the country’s border service, 300 officers from the interior ministry and 20 officers from the counternarcotics agency.
As it had been reported earlier, five CIS states are currently holding a special joint counterterrorism and counternarcotics operation dubbed “Marzbon 2006.” Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan launched this joint operation on August 8. The operation involved border guards, the defense, interior, emergencies ministries of all five participating countries, as well as their migration services and drug enforcement agencies. The main objective of the operation was in preventing terrorists and illegal migrants from crossing into territories of countries participating in the operation, as well as preventing trafficking in drugs and weapons.
According to Kyrgyzstan’s news agency AKIpress, the “Marzbon 2006” Operation in Kyrgyzstan led to the seizure of some 90 kilograms of drugs. The totaled included 74 kilograms of raw opium, some 3 kilograms of heroin an 12 kilograms of marijuana.
