MOSCOW, November 4 (AVN) - The amount of drugs smuggled into Russia and other CIS states has been growing steadily in the past few years, a spokesman for the Russian Federal Border Guard Service told the Military News Agency on Saturday.
Border guards and officers of other law-enforcement agencies seized over 2.7t of drugs, including 600 tons of heroin, on the Russian state borders and outer limits of the Central Asian states in 1999, the spokesman said. In the first 10 months of this year, over 3.7t of drugs were seized, including 677.7kg of heroin, 355kg of marijuana, and some 2.8t of raw opium.
Besides, Russia's Western regional border guard department and its partners eliminated over 11t of cannabis.
The major share of smuggled drugs is seized in Central Asia, the spokesman said. Some 99 percent of heroin and 97 percent of raw opium have been seized there this year.