DUSHANBE, January 12, Asia-Plus - Nine operations by the Tajik Drug Control Agency (DCA) and Afghan special services led to the seizure of nearly one ton drugs, including 313 kilograms of heroin, in 2006, Colonel Fakhriddin Jonmahmadov, chief of the DCA staff, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe today.  

According to him, due to joint efforts of the Tajik counternarcotics agency and Afghan special services seven heroin labs were destroyed in the northern provinces of Afghanistan.  

On the cooperation between the DCA and the power-wielding structures of Tajikistan, Jonmahmadov noted that 21 joint operations carried out by officers from the DCA and Tajik border troops last year led to the seizure of more than 428 kilograms of drugs and the arrest of 12 Afghan drug traffickers.   

The Tajik drug control official noted that more than 1,500 kilograms of drugs were seized last year in 50 joint operations carried out by the Tajik counternarcotics agency jointly with special services of the Russian Federation and Afghanistan.  

“Last year, officers from the DCA intercepted some 1,400 kilograms of drugs by themselves, which is 51.6 percent more than in the previous year of 2005,” the DCA staff chief said, noting that during the same period, the counternarcotics agency arrested 118 people on drug charges.