MOSCOW. Aug 3 (Interfax) - Afghanistan remains the key channel of opiates smuggled into Russia, Police Maj. Gen. Kirill Smurov, acting director of the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for Drug Control, said in an interview with Interfax.
"There are sustainable drug-producing regions in the world. They are the main sources of drug supplies worldwide, including to Russia. The main flow of heroin and opiates is coming from Afghanistan," Smurov said.
At the same time, cannabis is smuggled mostly from countries of Central Asia, North America and Europe, while cocaine is smuggled chiefly from countries of Latin America, he said.
Over the past ten years, law enforcement agencies have dismantled the activities of 8,000 criminal communities, including cross-border groups, he said.
"Nearly 400 tonnes of prohibited substances, among them 275 tonnes of narcotic drugs, 14.7 tonnes of psychotropic substances, 9.6 tonnes of potent substances, and 93.8 tonnes of drug precursors have been seized over the past ten years," Smurov said.
In the past few years, the counter-narcotics police have observed a tendency of common drugs derived from plants being replaced by synthetic drugs, he said.
"At the same time, the wide spread of cannabis-group narcotic substances still poses a serious threat due to their illegal cultivation and also the presence of large areas covered with wild-growing cannabis in Russia's Far East, Siberia, North Caucasus and Crime," Smurov said.