KHUJAND, July 22, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Over the first six months of this year, 29 residents of Sughd province (including three women) have been arrested outside Tajikistan for drug smuggling, which is two persons more than in the same period last year, Mirzoravshan Qutfiddinov, an official with the Sughd counternarcotics directorate, told reporters in Khujand on July 21.

In all, 82.867 kilograms of narcotics, with more than 72 kilograms of the being heroin, have been confiscated from them.

According to Qutfiddinov, 22 of them have been arrested in Russia, three others have been arrested in Kazakhstan, and four in Uzbekistan.