Answer: Officers from Russia's drug control agencies carry out comprehensive operational and preventative measures to counteract drug smuggling. They often work with the Russian Interior Ministry, the security services, border guards and customs officers. For example, Operation Mak-2004 (Poppy-2004) aimed to destroy illegal plantations and identify areas where plants from which drugs are derived grow in the wild, and also to prevent their illegal use. The operation identified 1,066 illegal plantations, while the police also apprehended individuals cultivating opiate and other narcotic plants and collecting them for sale. In all, officers confiscated over 16 metric tons of materials used in drug production and end narcotics. They opened 6,211 criminal cases, with 4,315 crimes classified as serious and particularly serious crimes.
Question: How do you co-operate with law enforcement agencies in other countries?
Answer: We recently completed another operation conducted in keeping with a decision of the member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. It aimed to block channels for smuggling drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors in the Russian Federation, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. In a bid to end drug trafficking in the frontier regions, 2,565 joint operational teams and 923 stationary posts were set up, while 654 railway junctions and stations, 1,127 roads and 124 airports were closed temporarily. Trains, aeroplanes, trucks and cars, luggage and transported cargoes were inspected and people crossing state borders screened.
During the operation, nearly three metric tons of narcotic substances and over 13 tons of raw drugs were confiscated. At the same time, 4,419 general criminal offences were identified, while 276 firearms and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition were seized. Operational information obtained by the Drug Control Agency under the president of the Republic of Tajikistan was used most effectively. It concerned a former warlord who smuggled drugs to Tajikistan over the Pyanj section of the Tajik-Afghan border. After a joint operation conducted by communications officers at the British Embassy and the Afghan Interior Ministry, the warlord was apprehended and his house searched. Drugs, a loaded grenade launcher and firearms were found and confiscated during the search.
Question: Drug traffickers are now making broad use of the Internet. There is no end to the adverts promoting drug use and psychedelic philosophy, which is especially widespread today.
Answer: True, there are servers with hundreds of texts describing the emotions caused by hashish, ketamine and ecstasy, providing recipes, doses and drug administration methods. You can even find advice about what you should if you are detained by the police for possessing drugs. This excessive enthusiasm for virtual technologies and psychedelic substances is a dangerous trend. Considering that the number of Russian Internet users has noticeably increased recently, and two-thirds of them are young people, the situation is becoming critical.
A major area of our Service's activity is preventing the non-medical use of narcotics and counteracting the promotion of drugs. It is essential to provide credible and professional coverage of this issue to get the unacceptable nature of drug use through to the population. We work in close contact with scientific institutions, vocational schools, specialised secondary schools and higher educational establishments, while we also involve medical institutions, psychological services and crime prevention units in this work. We also tell young people about the dangers of drugs, and explain the criminal and administrative penalties for drug trafficking.
