MOSCOW, January 18 (AVN) - Drug smuggling on the Russian borders has doubled in the past five years, a spokesman for the Russian Federal Border Guard Service (FBGS) Staff told the Military News Agency on Thursday.
Smuggling of heroin, which is considered one of the most dangerous drugs, has increased by 400 times, the spokesman said. In 2000, the main drug route ran through areas controlled by the South-Eastern (over 390 kg confiscated), Western (some 230 kg) and Far Eastern regional border guard departments.
Even more alarming is drug trafficking in Central Asia, with Russian border guards protecting the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border. They have seized over 3.1 tonnes of various drugs, mainly heroin.
Russian border guard specialists believe that the towns of Samara, Troitsk, Kurgan, Omsk, Novosibirsk and Barnaul are the main transit points of drugs coming from Central Asia to the Urals and other parts of Russia. A steady Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan-Kazan drug trafficking channel was established.
FBGS experts predict further escalation of problems caused by drug trafficking across the borders, with the major share of drugs coming from Afghanistan and Central Asia.
The service will request more money from the government to enhance its material and technical basis in those areas and to improve work aimed at disclosure of drug dealers' plans.