MOSCOW, April 19 (RIA Novosti) - A Tajik national carrying some 300 grams of heroin in his stomach was detained at the Koltsovo airport in Yekaterinburg in the Urals, a spokesman for the local police said on Sunday.
During a search operation, the police detained a Tajik national carrying 34 capsules with heroin weighing a total of about 300 grams, the spokesman said but gave no exact date when the drug courier was detained.
Most of the heroin and hashish coming into Russia originates in Afghanistan, and is trafficked into the country through the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Most of the drugs are then sold in Russia's largest cities, or shipped on to Europe.
Russian drug officials seized twice the volume of narcotics from Afghanistan in the first quarter of 2009 than in the same period of 2008, including 600 kg of heroin and 560 kg of hashish.
