In the Urals city of Kopeisk, an unemployed Tajik national was arrested on Saturday in possession of 12.5 kg of heroin. The drugs were discovered in his rented apartment, the spokesman said.
Also on Saturday, police seized about 11 kg of heroin from a resident of the city of Orsk in the neighboring Orenburg Region.
Most of the heroin and hashish coming into Russia is from Afghanistan and then trafficked through the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Most of the drugs are then sold in Russia's largest cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Over the first month and a half of 2009, narcotics police have confiscated 150% more heroin than for the same period in 2008. Last year, 3.5 tons of heroin were confiscated by police in Russia.
