DUSHANBE, June 21, Asia-Plus -- Tajik border guards have worded off attempts by Afghan drug traffickers to smuggle a large amount of narcotics into Tajikistan.  

Khoushnoud Rahmatulloyev, a spokesman for the border protection directorate of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB), told Asia-Plus that some 130 kilograms of drugs were intercepted in two separate operations at the Afghan border in the Khatlon province on June 18. 

According to him, on June 18, servicemen of the border unit deployed in the Panj district discovered 14.555 kilograms of hashish hidden in reeds at the border.  

The same day, border guards on a routine patrol spotted and tried to detain a group of armed persons who were illegally crossing the border river in the area near the Amrouddeh village in the Shuroobod district.  As a result of skirmish, the trespassers were forced to escape.  Three packages containing 74 kilograms of raw opium and 40 kilograms of cannabis were found on the spot.  

Criminal proceedings have been instituted and an investigation is under way.  

Over the first five months of 2007, Tajik border troops have seized 345 kilograms of drugs.  The totaled included 66.5 kilograms of heroin, some 130 kilograms of raw opium, 137 kilograms of cannabis and some 13 kilograms of chars.