Press service of the FSB border service department in Tajikistan told RIA Novosti that the detention occurred in the zone of control of the Moscow border guards detachment (180 kilometers to the south of Dushanbe).
According to FSB spokesman, the detainee is a Tajik citizen. He was transporting narcotics from Afghanistan.
Since 1993, Russian border guards seized more than 30 tons of narcotics on the Tajik-Afghan border, including 11 tons of heroin.
The problem of the expansion of drug-trafficking from Afghanistan, despite the presence of foreign military contingent in the country, remains very acute. Afghanistan is located in the heart of the so-called Golden Crescent, which also includes Pakistan, Tajikistan, some regions of Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakstan. The Golden Crescent, one of the four global drug production regions, poses an immediate threat to CIS and other countries.
The Tajik-Afghan stretch of the CIS border is the major conduit of drug-trafficking from Afghanistan to Western Europe. According to expert estimates, the volume of drug-trafficking via this route has doubled in recent years (last year Afghanistan produced more than 4,000 tons of raw opium, or more than 300 tons of heroin). The only obstacle on the way of drug-trafficking expansion is Russian border guards. The 201st motorized division had been deployed in Tajikistan specifically to assist Russian border guards. Last autumn, it was transformed into a Russian military base. At the same time, a decision was made to decrease the number of Russian border guards in Tajikistan and to transfer gradually the control over the Tajik-Afghan stretch ofthe border to Tajik border guards (the transfer is planned to be finalized by the end of next year). The question is whether the Tajik border guards will be able to counter effectively the increasing flow of drugs on their own.
