DUSHANBE, September 14 (Itar-Tass) — A major batch of drugs, including precursors for producing heroin, were seized during a large-scale operation conducted jointly by Tajikistan, Russia and the United Sates in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan. Six drug laboratories were destroyed. Deputy Interior Minister of Afghanistan Colonel-General Baz Mohammad Ahmadi said this at an international anti-drug conference which is underway in Bulgaria, the public relations center of the Tajik Drug Control Center at Tajik President Rustam Nazarov reports on Friday.
According to the Afghan general, 180 kilograms of heroin, 1.2 tons of opium, two tons of opium poppy seeds, 700 kilograms of precursors and 1.5 tons of morphine were seized during a special operation in the village of Kundum Kuli bordering on Tajikistan.
The Afghan deputy interior minister expressed gratitude “to partners from the anti-drug departments of Russia, Tajikistan and the United States for practical assistance in holding the special operation.”
The Afghan and Tajik Badakhshan regions are separated by the narrow mountain border river Pyandzh. As the Tajik Prosecutor General’s Office said on July 30 of the current year, Afghan and Pamir drug cartels “are actively interacting” in smuggling drugs to the CIS countries and Europe. Four leaders of illegal armed formations, who call themselves informal leaders in this and other “criminal business,” were named.