MOSCOW. Jan 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Border guards of Russia's Panj detachment detained two Uzbek citizens who crossed into Tajikistan from Afghanistan illegally on Tuesday, the Federal Border Guard Service (FBGS) press service reported.
"Those two are one of the first violators detained in the area of responsibility of the Russian border guard group in Tajikistan this year," an official of the press service said. The group is considered the best formation of the Federal Border Guard Service taking into account the results of 2001.
In the first days of the new year border guards patrolling the Panj River prevented the crossing of four armed drug traffickers who hastily abandoned 14.84kg of heroin on the Tajik bank of the River.
Russian border guards on the Tajik-Afghan border thwarted over 90 crossings of the Panj by drug traffickers, detained over 200 violators and confiscated over 5.48t of drugs including 2.45t of heroin last year. The amount of seized drugs was 70 percent higher than in 2000.
Drug trafficking takes place under cover of armed people in most of the cases, the official said. Russian border guards came under attack over 90 times and were engaged in combat clashes over 50 times in 2001. One of them was killed and four wounded.
The most complicated section of the border is controlled by the Moscow detachment. It was named the best detachment of the Federal Border Guard Service last year, the official said. Among other distinguished units are the Astrakhan separate guard-ship brigade and the separate aircraft regiment of the North Caucasus regional border guard department, as well as the Vladivostok separate checkpoint of the Pacific regional border guard department.