Monday, June 18, 2012 -
Tajik police in the southernmost province of Khatlon netted over 400 kilograms of narcotics over the weekend, Tajik sources reported Monday.
The cache – weighing a total of 419 kilograms (923 pounds) – is believed to belong to Afghan drug smugglers, the Dushanbe-based news agency Asia-Plus reported on Monday.
Officers discovered the stash of narcotics on Friday in the Shurabad district on Friday, the interior ministry said in a statement.
The cache contains cannabis, the ministry said. A bayonet was also discovered along with the drugs.
The drugs were hidden near the Tajik-Afghan border, in a special location devised to keep drugs from being found, the Avesta.tj news agency reported.
Earlier this month, clashes with Afghan drug traffickers at the border resulted in police seizing 200 kilograms of drugs.
Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of heroin, and traffickers from the unstable state are frequent travelers to Tajikistan due to the country’s poor management of the porous border. Drugs then snake through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, heading to Russia and China.