Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: As many as 3.5 tons of Afghan heroin worth more than $1 billion has been seized by Russia’s law enforcement agencies in 2014, a report said Monday.
An Indian news agency—Russia and India Report, quoted Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service (FDCS) head, Viktor Ivanov, as saying that the FDCS was responsible for seizing 2.5 tons of heroin. “FDCS deals with seizing large batches of drugs, such as Afghan heroin. In their turn, Russian Interior Ministry’s departments clear the consumer market from already diluted drugs,” he added.
He said the drug control service persecuted organized criminal groups and intercepted large wholesale quantities of drugs.
FDCS has tracked and destroyed ties between large international organized criminal groups and regional Russian criminal groups that distributed wholesale quantities of drugs, thus undermining technological schemes of distributive trafficking networks, he stressed.
According to the drug control service, around 30 tons of heroin get to Russia annually.
Poppy cultivation has remained as one of the main challenges for the Afghan government in past several years. The counternarcotics departments have paid all out efforts to overcome poppy cultivation in the country but insecurity in some areas has impeded activities of the organizations.
