DUSHANBE, October 20, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Officers from the Drug Control Agency (DCA) office in Sughd province have seized a large mount of heroin.

According to the DCA press center, a joint operation carried out by drug control officers and officers from the State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’s office in Sughd province in the city of Isfara on October 19 led to the arrest of a Kyrgyz national.

“More than 20 kilograms of heroin were confiscated from him,” said Major Bobojon Shafiyev, a chief inspector at the DCA press center.  “He was going to transport the narcotics to Kyrgyzstan and from there to other CIS nations.”

Criminal proceedings have been instituted against the detained drug pusher under the provisions of Article 200 (4) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code - manufacture, acquisition, storage, and transportation of drugs.

An operation to reveal channels of smuggling of that consignment of drugs into Tajikistan is under way, major Shafiyev said, noting that the value of the detained drug consignment in black market is some 120,000 U.S. dollars.

According to the statistical data from Tajik counter narcotics agency, Tajik law enforcement authorities have seized 3,529 kilograms of drugs, with some 437.5 kilograms of them being heroin, over the first nine months of this year.