MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian border guards found a large cache of drugs on the Tajik-Afghan border overnight to Friday.
Moscow unit servicemen removed 75 packages of heroin weighing around 80 kilograms and a kilo of hashish, the Federal Border Guard Service's press center told Interfax.
"The drugs were transported to the border guard unit and will be destroyed," a spokesman noted.
This year, Russian border guards have confiscated over one tonne of drugs, including 660 kilos of heroin on the Tajik-Afghan border this year. No border guards have been injured in the more than 10 clashes that have erupted on the border.
"Last year's tendencies have prevailed this year. Heroin accounts for more than half of all the drugs that Russian border guards have confiscated on the Tajik-Afghan border," the spokesman pointed out.
Out of the four tonnes of drugs confiscated on the border last year, heroin accounted for more than two tonnes, he said. In 2002, Russian troops were attacked on around 50 occasions. One serviceman was killed and nine wounded.
Afghanistan's drug industry has not declined in the wake of the U.S.-led anti-terrorist operation.
"Not only drug crops, but also warehouses, bases and labs for processing drugs have remained in Afghanistan," the Federal Border Guard Service's International Department head Alexander Manilov told Interfax.
"Moscow supplied information on locations where drugs are stored and manufactured to its Western partners, including to the United States. However, the level of drug trafficking suggests that many of the facilities have not been destroyed," Manilov noted.
The UN reported that around 3,500 tonnes of raw opium were produced in Afghanistan in 2002. Up to 350 tonnes of heroin can be processed from this amount.