MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. The Taliban leadership has managed to reverse the negative trend with drug trafficking in Afghanistan, though the situation remains difficult, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said in an article for Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
"The drug trafficking situation in Afghanistan remains complicated, primarily due to the increasing use of synthetic opioids such as nitazenes, which are more powerful than fentanyl, and deadly even in microdoses," he said.
Moreover, amid falling opium production in 2024 a 75% increase in the volume of methamphetamine seizures in Afghanistan and neighboring countries was revealed, Shoigu said. "The center of opium drug synthesis is shifting to the countries of the so-called Golden Triangle where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos converge," Russian Security Council Secretary noted.
Meanwhile he stressed that "the Taliban leadership managed to reverse the negative trend that emerged during the years of the US presence in Afghanistan." "There has also been a reduction in the presence of heroin on the Russian drug market since 2021. The volume of its seizures in the country has decreased threefold, from 1.4 tons to 319 kg," Shoigu said.