DUSHANBE, March 14, 2012, Asia-Plus – A high-ranking officer from the counternarcotics agency is facing a charge of misuse of official powers.

A source at one of the power-wielding structures of the country told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon that Colonel Ravshanbek Mirzoahmadov, chief of the operational and search department within the Drug Control Agency (DCA) under the President of Tajikistan, was arrested “ten days ago on suspicion of misusing official powers.”

Meanwhile, unofficial sources say the arrest of Mirzoahmadov was conducted by officers from the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) jointly with representatives from the Prosecutor-General’s Office.

We will recall that in a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Tajik drug control chief Rustam Nazarov revealed on January 25 that seven drug control officers have been arrested for corruption since June 1999, when the country’s counternarcotics agency was established.