29 April 2004 21:26
Russian drug control agency to open office in Kabul
MOSCOW. April 29 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Service plans to open an
office in Afghanistan.
"We are holding negotiations on opening a representative office for our service in Kabul. I believe it could
start work this year," Police Gen. Viktor Cherkesov, the director of the service, told Interfax on Thursday.
The relevant Afghan and Russian agencies are creating a
legal basis to organize the work of the Russian drug control
"It is important for us to discover the established links
between the local drug producing groups, which control the
"Over half of the drugs illegally circulated in Russia originate from abroad. The majority of them, primarily
heroin, comes from Afghanistan. In fact, we are dealing with drug aggression," Cherkesov said.
service's office in Kabul. "The purpose is to arrange active interaction with Afghan law enforcement
agencies to efficiently discover and curb the flow of drugs coming from that country," Cherkesov said.
production and the drug smuggling from Afghanistan, and our criminal groups. This would in turn help us find out who
is behind the transfer of drugs from Afghanistan to Central Asia, Russia, and Europe," he said.
The drug threat emanating from Afghanistan "will have to be battled for years," Cherkesov said. "See
for yourself: [Afghan producers] produced 340 tonnes of heroin in 2002 and 360 tonnes in 2003, and international experts
believe 50%-80% more heroin will be produced in 2004," he said. [RU AF EUROPE ASIA EEU EMRG DRU CRIM] va tj
[Interfax] |
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