DUSHANBE, February 10, 2011, Asia-Plus -- Police officers have intercepted a large amount of heroin in Dushanbe.

The source at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) says a 25-year-old unemployed from GBAO’s Ishkashim district, H.A., was detained in Dushanbe on February 9.  A package containing narcotic drug that tested positive to heroin weighing more than nine kilograms was confiscated from him.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted against the alleged drug peddler and an investigation is under way.

In January alone, Tajik law enforcement authorities seized some 640 kilograms of narcotics.  A totaled included more than 42 kilograms of heroin, some 68 kilograms of raw opium and more than 528 kilograms of cannabis.  The MoI officers accounted for major part (232 kilograms) of narcotics seized in the country last month, the source said.