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2002-04-10 07:10 MSK - Afghan drug trade remains unhindered
MOSCOW -
The flow of illegal drugs from Afghanistan remains unhindered despite the ouster
of the Taliban and change in government, the head of Russia's border guards said
Tuesday. "We had hoped that that the success of the anti-Taliban campaign would
result in the destruction of illegal drug production in Afghanistan," said
Konstantin Totsky, director of Russia's Federal Border Service. "But as far as
we can tell ... not a single factory has been destroyed." Totsky said Russian
border guards patrolling the frontier between Tajikistan and Afghanistan seized
350 kilograms (770 pounds) of illegal narcotics during the first three months of
this year. Of that amount, 310 kilograms (682 pounds) was heroin, he said. In
2001, border guards confiscated 5.4 tons (5.9 short tons) of illegal drugs, 2.5
tons (2.8 short tons) of it heroin, Totsky said. Russia has 25,000 border guards
stationed in Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic that shares a 1,206 kilometer
(744-mile) frontier with Afghanistan. Afghanistan is one of the world's biggest
producers of opium and heroin. Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has banned the
growing of opium poppies, but it's not clear what effect, if any, the ban has
had. "We have to help Afghan farmers return to their traditional forms of
agriculture," Totsky said, calling the drug trade "a serious threat to the
nations of the Central Asian region, Russia and European
governments." -AP
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