TASHKENT. June 25 (Interfax) - The Uzbek National Security Service has destroyed 1,400 kilograms of seized drugs on the orders from the national government.
The drugs were burned in blast furnaces of a Tashkent enterprise in the presence of members of the Interdepartmental Drug Control Commission, representatives of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the public and the media.
A source in the National Security Service told Interfax on Thursday that the destroyed drugs were seized by law enforcement authorities in their crackdown on drug dealers as material evidence in criminal cases, in which court orders had taken effect.
The destroyed drugs consisted of 133.3 kilograms of heroin, 775 kilograms of opium, 93.2 kilograms of hashish and 309 kilograms of marijuana.
In all, Uzbekistan has destroyed 54 tonnes of narcotics since 1994, when the first quantity of over 14 tonnes of drugs was burned.
According to the National Drug Control Information Analysis Center operating under the government, the republic seized 2,298 kilograms of drugs in 2014 (2,326 kilograms in 2013), including 106.5 kilograms of heroin (121.6 kilograms), 881.9 kilograms of opium (851.3 kilograms), 802.9 kilograms of marijuana (873.5 kilograms), 100 kilograms of hashish (143.3 kilograms) and others.
Specialists say that Afghan drugs are smuggled into Uzbekistan mostly across Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and directly from Afghanistan via the border river Amu Darya.
In 2014, one hundred foreign citizens were detained on drug-related crime counts, among them 25 citizens of Tajikistan, 22 of Russia, 19 of Afghanistan, seven of Kyrgyzstan, six of Turkey, five of Kazakhstan, five of Iran and of other countries.
Operation Black Poppy 2014 uncovered 1,125 cases of growing illegal drug crops in the republic on a total area of 0.67 hectares. Wild hemp was destroyed on an area of 0.47 hectares.
The republic has witnessed a downward trend in the number of drug addicts. There are 14,692 registered drug addicts at present or 1,353 less than in the previous year.
The previous public destruction of narcotics in Uzbekistan was held in June 2014. Back then 1,270 kilograms of drugs were burned.