DUSHANBE, July 28, 2010, Asia-Plus — Compared to last year, opium cultivation is expected to decrease in Afghanistan this year, Halimjon Mahmoudov, an official with the Drug Control Agency (DCA), told reporters in Dushanbe on July 28.
“We have received information that some 25 percent of poppy plantations in Afghanistan have been affected by fungus,” Mahmoudov said.
We will recall that Mr. Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UNODC, told the BBC that Afghanistan”s 2010 opium output could fall by up to 25 per cent, thanks to the disease, a fungus that could have infected about half of the total poppy crop.
Meanwhile, Tajik law enforcement authorities have reportedly seized more than 2,047 kilograms of narcotics over the first six months of this year. A totaled included 539 kilograms of heroin, 427 kilograms of raw opium and 1,079 kilograms of cannabis.
During the same period, Tajik law enforcement officers arrested 491 people on drug charges, including 29 foreign citizens from the CIS nations, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Lithuania and some other countries, the DCA official noted.
According to the counternarcotics agency, Afghan narcotics are smuggled into Tajikistan mainly through Shuroobod, Farkhor and Panj districts in Khatlon province as well as through Gorno Badakhshan.
