DUSHANBE, April 2, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Dushanbe police detained a large amount of narcotics in three separate operations last carried out Thursday.

According to the Ministry of Interior (MoI), a pharmacist with a drugstore located in Dushanbe’s microrayon 46 was detained on April 30 on suspicion of having been involved in drug trafficking.  When searching the drugstore, police officers found 18.248 kilograms of raw opium.

The same day, a resident of the city of Kulob was detained in Dushanbe’s Zarafshon area.  708 grams of marijuana were confiscated from him.

On April 30, police officers also detained a drug pusher in Dushanbe’s Zarafshon area when he was trying to sell 430 grams of heroin, the source at a MoI said.