DUSHANBE, October 26, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Four nationals of Uzbekistan and two nationals of Tajikistan have been detained in Tursunzoda district bordering Uzbekistan for drug trafficking.

An operation carried out by officers from the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) on October 25 led to the arrest of members of the transnational crime group that were going to open a new channel through which Afghan drugs would be smuggled from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan and Russia.

Nozirjon Bouriyev, a spokesman for the SCNS, says a cache containing more than 233 kilograms of raw opium was discovered in house of one of residents of the village of Kommuna in Tursunzoda district, some 60 kilometers west of Dushanbe.  “Investigation has revealed the owners of the drugs,” said Bouriyev, “They proved to be four citizens of Uzbekistan and two nationals of Tajikistan.”

Criminal proceedings have been instituted against the detained rug traffickers under the provisions of three articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code: Article 200 – drug trafficking; Article 289 – smuggling; and Article 335 – illegal border crossing.  An investigation is under way.