MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/. Some 145,000 drug-related crimes have been exposed this year, with more than 25 tons of prohibited substances being seized, Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said.

"This year, some 145,000 drug-related crimes have been exposed in Russia. Drug related crime accounted for a tenth of all registered crimes. Around 70% of such crimes have been cleared. Law enforcement agencies have seized more than 25 tons of prohibited substances," the ministry’s press center quoted him as saying at a meeting of the joint board of the Russian and Tajik interior ministries.

According to the minister, illegal drug trafficking accounts for more than a third of organized crime in Russia, with drug dealers maintaining international ties. "Thus, a joint investigative team is probing into related criminal cases against members of a transnational criminal community. It has been established that its organizer is a citizen of Tajikistan. While staying outside the two countries, he remotely set up groups for selling drugs, arranged their illegal transportation by rail and motor transport. As a result of team work, around 140 kilograms of drugs, including some 100 kilograms of heroin and 30 kilograms of hashish of the Afghan origin, have been seized," Kolokoltsev said.