DUSHANBE, May 30, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- A ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Drug Control Agency under the President of Tajikistan is being held in Dushanbe today.

President Emomali Rahmon as well as heads of counternarcotics agencies of Central Asia’s states, Azerbaijan and Russia as well as senior representatives of Tajik law enforcement agencies and international originations active in Tajikistan are also attending the meeting.

We will recall that by president’s decree the Drug Control Agency was established n June 1, 1999 in accordance with implementation of an agreement signed by the Government of Tajikistan and the UN Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC).

The Tajik Government and the UNODC signed the agreement to create Tajik Drug Control Agency on April 27, 1999.  Announcing the agreement at the opening of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice meeting in Vienna, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said the new agency will be under his direct control.  With technical assistance from the UNODC, the agency has documented drug trafficking in Tajikistan and Central Asia as a whole.

Over the past decade, the Tajik counter narcoticsagency itself and in cooperation with law enforcement authorities of the CIS states and Afghanistan has seized 19,861 kilograms of narcotics, including more than 9,000 kilograms of narcotics sized inside Tajikistan.  The DCA has revealed and warded off 1,405 drug-related crimes and have broke up 240 drug rings over the report period.  824 criminal cases against 1,223 persons have moved to courts and 10,045 kilograms of narcotics, including, 3,856 kilograms of heroin, have been destroyed over the past decade.