DUSHANBE. April 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The Tajik Presidential Drug Control Agency will set up mobile groups for combating drug contraband from Afghanistan, the agency's deputy chief Faizullo Abdulloyev told a Monday press conference.
The groups will operate in the Khatlon and Sogd regions and the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous district, where Afghan drugs are smuggled.
The mobile groups will replace Russian border guards withdrawn from the Tajik-Afghan border.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure of the Moskovsky border unit of the Russian Federal Security Service is being transferred to Tajik border guards in southeast Tajikistan.
Tajik border guards will take control of the frontier sector and the border infrastructure within two months, said the press service of the Russian border group in Tajikistan.
Tajik border guards will control 15 checkpoints and 18 outposts on the 232-kilometer area formerly supervised by the Moskovsky border unit.
The majority of drugs from Afghanistan are smuggled through that area. The Moskovsky border unit confiscated over 15.5 tonnes of drugs, including 6.75 tonnes of heroin, from 2001-04.