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Russia solved 230,000 drug-related cases in 2013

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NOVO-OGARYOVO, January 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's drug control agency solved 230,000 narcotics-related criminal cases last year but the drug trafficking scene "remains tense", the agency's head said on Monday.

“Some 110,000 suspects were prosecuted and subjected to investigative measures,” Viktor Ivanov told President Vladimir Putin at a review of Federal Drug Control Service work in 2013.

Some 700 large-scale operations against drug trafficking were conducted in Russia at an interregional level, 35 undertaken in collaboration with foreign partners and five carried out abroad, he said.

“We held three anti-drug operations in Afghanistan and as a result, 15 narcotics laboratories were eliminated. Eighteen metric tonnes of drugs in heroin equivalent and ready for shipment were confiscated,” Ivanov said.

Russia is one of the largest destinations for heroin from Afghanistan, the world’s main heroin producer. Last year, Russia seized 2.6 metric tonnes of Afghan heroin, a 20 percent increase on the previous year, according to Ivanov.

“On the whole, the situation remains tense since the scale of poppy plantations in Afghanistan reached its historic maximum and, according to UN estimations, spanned a record of 209,000 hectares,” Ivanov said.

The official added that the Russian anti-drug agency plans to boost further cooperation with foreign partners, including within the framework of Russia’s presidency in the Group of Eight (G8), the forum of eight leading world economies, this year.

Terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall

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