TON OF DRUGS SEIZED IN CSTO OPERATION IN TAJIKISTAN

RIA Novosti
15:06 | 26/ 09/ 2008

DUSHANBE, September 26 (RIA Novosti) – More than 954 kg (2,101 lbs)
of drugs were confiscated in Tajikistan in the course of the special
operation of regional security organization members between September
16 and 22, country’s police official said Friday.

A spokesman for the Tajik Drugs Control Agency said the drugs were
confiscated during the first stage of the Channel-2008 anti-drugs
operation, conducted by members of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO).

"Within the stated period law enforcement bodies in cooperation with
border guards detected and stopped 38 crimes, connected with smuggling
and trade of drugs," the spokesman said.

The operation, he added, was monitored by representatives of law
enforcement bodies from Azerbaijan, China, Latvia, the United States
and Ukraine.

The CSTO is a security grouping comprising the former Soviet republics
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan.

Narcotics trafficking is an acute problem for the Central Asian
republics due to the constant flow of illegal drugs from neighboring
Afghanistan, the world’s largest heroin and opium producer. The drugs
are then smuggled via Russia’s Urals region onto Western Europe.