MOSCOW, August 29 (AVN) - The Federal Border Guard Service (FBGS) is worried with escalation of heroin trafficking on the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border, a spokesman for the FBGS told the Military News Agency on Wednesday.
Russian border guards have seized over 140kg of heroin in the Moscow and Panj border guard detachments' areas of responsibility since Monday. The courier who carried some 32kg of heroin to Tajikistan attempted to put up resistance but was killed in a shootout. Apart from drugs a Kalashnikov assault rifle was found at the site.
Tajik-Afghan border guards have seized over 4t of various drugs in 2001 including over 1.5t of heroin. The number of confiscated heroin reached over 240kg in August alone.
August 2000 was marked by similar events, the spokesman said. In particular, almost 120kg of heroin and over 685kg of raw opium were confiscated on the territory controlled by the Moscow border guard detachment that month.
Heroin smuggling attempts are registered in Russia's westernmost Kaliningrad region as well. A Belarussian woman was detained in the Nesterov-zheleznodorozhny-passazhirsky checkpoint. She was riding a train from Gomel to Kaliningrad with 450g of heroin. It is the largest batch of drugs detained by the Kaliningrad regional border guard department this year.