MOSCOW. May 5 (Interfax) - The continuing instability in Ukraine has already led to a surge in illicit drug trafficking from the territory of this country, the director of Russia's Federal Drug Control Service, Viktor Ivanov, has said.
"This circumstance is having a serious impact on the drug problem. The territory of Ukraine has been used by international drug trafficking groups, including for the purposes of smuggling heroin and cocaine from Latin America that reaches the Russian territory through the territory of Crimea," he told reporters in Moscow on Thursday.
"Certainly, this situation is producing an effect. [Drug] trafficking across the territory of Ukraine is on the rise," Ivanov said.