DUSHANBE, January 14 (RIA Novosti) - Tajik law-enforcers seized some six metric tons of drugs in the country in 2012, up 41.1 percent since 2011, a spokeswoman for the country’s drug control agency said on Monday.
“Cannabis-based drugs – weighting 4.8 metric tons in total – accounted for the bulk of the seizures. A total of 630 kilograms of raw opium and 515 kilograms 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.
