DUSHANBE, November 23, Asia-Plus  - The Drug Control Agency (DCA) at the President of Tajikistan burned 1,066 kilograms of drugs on November 23. 

The drugs were confiscated by the Tajik counternarcotics agency in the course of 2006-2007.  Representatives from the Tajik law enforcement agencies, the UNODC regional office, and media attended the process of drug burning.

According to DCA, they have burnt 2,602 kilograms of drugs since the beginning of the year. 

As it had been reported earlier, officers from the Tajik counternarcotics agency burned some 1,100 kilograms of drugs, with 90 percent of them being heroin, in the presence of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Antonio Maria Costa on October 5, 2007.    

In the meantime, an official ceremony of handover of the state-of-the-art drug-detecting equipment for checking vehicles to DCA will be held in Dushanbe today afternoon.  The equipment is handed over to Tajikistan in accordance with government-to-government agreement with China.  A total cost of the equipment is more than 4 million US dollars. 

According to the Deputy DCA Director, Bunafsha Odinayeva, the X-ray equipment is installed on a trailer Volvo.  She noted that Tajikistan is still the first in Central Asia to acquire such equipment.