DUSHANBE, July 25, 2012, Asia-Plus – Over the first six months of this year, Tajik law enforcement authorities have sized 3,383 kilograms of narcotics, Ms. Bunafsha Odinayeva, the deputy director of the Drug Control Agency (DCA) under the president of Tajikistan, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 25.
According to her, a totaled included some 364 kilograms of heroin, some 400 kilograms of raw opium and more than 2,615 kilograms of cannabis.
The counternarcotics agency itself has seized more than 300 kilograms of narcotics, including 237 kilograms of cannabis, over the report period.
During the same period, security forces arrested 12 foreign nationals on drug charges, including seven Afghans, two Iranian citizens, one Kazakh, one Kyrgyz and one Uzbek, Odinayeva noted.
Meanwhile, 80 Tajik nationals have been detained with 85.6 kilograms of narcotics over the report period outside Tajikistan, primarily in the Russian Federation, which is 72 percent fewer than in the same period last year. 426 Tajik nationals were detained with 507 kilograms of narcotics outside the country in January-June 2011.
“To-date, 7,245 drug-dependent people have been reported in the country,” said Odinayeva, “More than 60 percent of them are injecting drug users (IDUs).”
