By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Dushanbe : Around six tonnes of drugs were seized in Tajikistan in 2012, a spokeswoman for the country’s drug control agency said Monday.
The figure was up 41 percent since 2011.
“Cannabis-based drugs – weighing 4.8 metric tonnes in total – accounted for the bulk of the seizures. A total of 630 kg of raw opium and 515 kg of heroin were also seized,” Drug Control Agency spokeswoman Umeda Yusupova said.
A total of 895 drug-related crimes were registered in the country in 2012, and citizens of Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan were detained.
As of 2012, the country had more than 7,200 registered drug users, including 4,882 heroin addicts.
About 90 percent of heroin consumed in Russia is smuggled from Afghanistan, the world’s largest heroin producer, via former Soviet republics, including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.