The volume of drugs, exported from Afghanistan to Central Asia, doubled last year. This was reported by the First Deputy Director of the FSB - the head of the Border Guard Service of the FSB of Russia, Army General Vladimir Kulishov in an interview to Rossiyskaya Gazeta on the eve of Border Guards Day.
"In 2021, the volume of drugs transported from Afghanistan to the countries of the Central Asian region doubled. More than 3.5 tons of drugs were withdrawn from the illegal turnover in the Republic of Tajikistan alone, against 1.7 tons in 2020," said Vladimir Kulishov.
According to him, the difficult situation in Afghanistan coupled with the growing humanitarian crisis "contributes to the activation of criminal groups specializing in the production and smuggling of drugs into neighboring countries and also creates risks of infiltration of international terrorist organizations in the flow of refugees into the Central Asian region and the Russian Federation".
To neutralize these threats, Kulishov said, a package of joint measures aimed at timely obtaining information about the situation in the Central Asian region, detecting and suppressing drug trafficking channels as well as the illegal entry into Russian territory of persons involved in terrorist and extremist activities is being implemented. "To this end, we maintain close cooperation with our partners from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, implementing in some cases joint preventive and investigative measures," he noted.
Last year, Kulishov said, the number of attempts to smuggle drugs and psychotropic substances increased on some fronts. Last year border patrols seized over 1 ton of drugs as well as psychotropic and strong drugs from illegal circulation, double the quantity seized the year before.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS