By RIA Novosti,
Dushanbe : Customs officials in Tajikistan detained a Filipino woman at Dushanbe airport Tuesday for attempting to smuggle more than three kilograms of heroin stuffed into fabric buttons to Turkey.
“During an individual baggage search of passengers, customs authorities detained Milagros Nolasko, 48, who was attempting to smuggle some 3,300 grams of heroin on a flight from Dushanbe to Istanbul,” a customs agent told RIA Novosti.
The agent said that the woman had stuffed the drugs into 758 fabric buttons stitched onto 33 Tajik national robes. An investigation is ongoing.
Last year, some 20 kg of heroin was seized on flights from Dushanbe to Istanbul, leading to the arrest of five smugglers from South Africa, Uganda, the Philippines and Turkey.
Tajikistan is a major smuggling route for heroin from neighbouring Afghanistan, the world’s largest heroin producer.