Criminal proceedings against ex-head of the Drug Control Department for Farkhor region Faridun Umarov, brother of the First Deputy Chairman of the Tajik State National Security Committee Mansur Umarov, are currently under way.

F.Umarov was arrested earlier this year by representatives of the Tajik State Finance Control and Counter-Corruption Agency, who managed to reveal an entire criminal group consisting of ordinary citizens and high-ranked police officers.

According to the Agency, Umarov faces charges under Article 200 part 3 of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan (illegal turnover of drugs with purpose of sale). “Currently, Umarov, as well as other members of the criminal group, remain in custody. Criminal proceedings are still under way,” the agency stressed.

“Not a single drug trafficking group is able to operate without support from high-ranked officials,” top Tajik drug control official Fattoh Saidov said at one of the briefings.

Umarov and other high-ranked officials involved in drug trafficking were arrested shortly after the arrest of Rustam Haitov, leader of the drug trafficking group which used to transport drugs from Afghanistan to Russia through Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.

According to the investigation, the group consisted of high-ranked police officers, including F.Umarov. Furthermore, in the course of the investigation the police have arrested Head of the Tajik Interior Ministry’s Drug Control Department, Major Zafar Mirzoev and Head of the Dushanbe Drug Control Department, Lieutenant Colonel Tohirkhon Sherov.

According to the Counter-Corruption Agency, apart from drug trafficking, the arrested persons took bribes to release drug traffickers.