Baku | Wednesday
DRUG trafficking from Afghanistan has increased since the start of the US-led military strikes there, Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said on Tuesday during a meeting with his Azeri counterpart.
”Since the beginning of military operations in Afghanistan, drug traffickers have been trying to increase the volume of narcotics smuggled in (from that country) through the borders and territories of countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),” Gryzlov said.
The CIS is a loose organisation uniting all the former Soviet republics except the three Baltic states.
Three CIS countries, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, have borders with Afghanistan.
Gryzlov said it was necessary to fight the drug threat more efficiently.
”At present, only five to ten percent of all drug (from the region) is seized at the borders,” he said.
Gryzlov and Azeri Interior Minister Ramil Usubov signed a cooperation agreement on the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking.
Since the beginning of the year, Russian border guards policing the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan — under a 1992 agreement between Moscow and Dushanbe — have seized nearly two tons of heroin.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan has become one of the main routes to Russia and the west for Afghan narcotics. – Sapa-AFP