KHUJAND, August 5, 2009, Asia-Plus — Officers from the anti-drug squad (drug police) within the Khujand police department seized 1.5 kilograms of heroin in an operation carried out in the Qairoqqum resort area late Monday.
Three local residents – the 25-year-old Askar Iskandarov from the Bobojonghafurov district as well as the 26-year-old Kamoliddin Sandalov and the 35-year-old Farhod Soliyev from the city of Qairoqqum – were detained on suspicion of having been involved in drug trafficking, the source at the anti-drug squad said. “When searching their room, drug police officers found 201 wraps of narcotic drug tested positive to heroin weighing 1.5 kilograms,” said the source. “They were going to transport heroin to Moscow by plane.”
Criminal proceedings have been instituted against them under the provisions of Article 200, part 4 (drug trafficking) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code and an investigation is under way.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Nasim Olimov, the chief of the information analysis department of the anti-drug unit within the Sughd police directorate, said that local drug police officers had seized 228.794 kilograms of narcotics over the first seven months of this year, which was 37 kilograms fewer than in the same period of last year. A totaled included 94 kilograms of heroin, 9 kilograms of raw opium, 125 kilograms of hashish and more than one kilogram of other types of narcotics.
