MOSCOW. Jan 21 (Interfax-AVN) -Main centers of drug production in the Afghan cities of Feyzabad, Taloqan and Konduz were not destroyed in the course of the anti-terrorist operation and stocks of opium and heroin still remain there, a source in the Federal Border Guard Service (FBGS) said on Monday.
Over 70kg of drugs including over 60kg of heroin have been seized on the Tajik-Afghan border this year. The fact evidences that drug trafficking across the border will not decline in the near future, the source told Interfax-Military News Agency.
At present Afghanistan is the world's leader in drugs production, for 75 percent of raw opium are made in that country. Russian and Tajik border guard control main routes of drug transportation from Afghanistan to the European market. According to the source, one of the most important routes is the so-called northern one which goes through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhastan and Kyrgyzstan.
Drug traffickers consider Tajikistan to be among the main terminal bases. The route is attractive for the smugglers because having entered Tajikistan they can transport drugs freely across other CIS borders.
The drug traffickers attempt to involve China in their business, too. For example, they have tried to conclude several deals on exchanging Afghan heroin for essential goods in the Mugrad district of the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region of Tajikistan at the junction of the Tajik, Chinese and Afghan borders.
According to the source, the Russian border guard group in Tajikistan detained 5.5t of drugs, including over 2.4t of heroin, in its area of responsibility in 2001. The amount of confiscated drugs grew over 1,000 times since 1996.
The leaders of the Russian Federal Border Guard Service believes that the volume of drug trafficking across the Tajik- Afghan border and further towards Europe calls for closer cooperation of the European Union and Central Asian countries in combating the drug flow from Afghanistan.