By IANS,
Moscow : Around 6,000 kg of various narcotics were seized and six drug manufacturing labs were destroyed in Afghanistan in a joint operation by Russian, US and Afghan law enforcement officers, RIA Novosti reported.
The operation conducted in Badakhshan province seized 180 kg of heroin, 1,500 kg of morphine, 1,200 kg of opium, 2,000 kg of opium poppy seeds and 700 kg of drug-making precursor chemicals, Russian narcotics agency FSKN said Thursday.
Flooded by heroin made in Afghanistan and smuggled through former Soviet republics, Russia has cooperated with NATO in fighting the drug business in Afghanistan for years.
Moscow remains highly concerned about the persisting threat of drug trafficking from Afghanistan, particularly after international troops leave in 2014.
According to Russia’s federal drug control watchdog, heroin production in Afghanistan has risen 40-fold in the past decade. Opium poppy plantations currently cover 130,000 hectares in the country.
According to the UN’s World Drug Report, Russia consumed an estimated 70 tonnes of heroin in 2010.