This drug trafficking channel had been operating in Yekaterinburg from this February. Thanks to co-ordinated and effective measures of the Urals customs officers within the "control purchase" operation, a drug dealer and two suppliers, Tajik citizens, were detained when trying to sell 13 kg of heroin. The organisers of the crime were later detained too, and an inquiry was launched into the case. According to the Criminal Code, drug trafficking is to be punished by 7-15 years in prison.
Since the beginning of 2004, Urals customs officers have thwarted 23 drug smuggling attempts and confiscated over 40 kg of drugs, including heroin (70%), which is 17 times more than in the same period of 2003.
On Russian territory, drugs are chiefly smuggled from Afghanistan to Tajikistan.