DUSHANBE, February 13, 2015, Asia-Plus -- Tajik border guards have reportedly warded off an attempt by Afghan drug dealers to smuggle a large amount of drugs into Khatlon province.

“A group of Afghan drug traffickers have crossed into Khatlon’s Shouroobod district and handed over a large amount of drugs to their Tajik accomplices,” an official source at the Main Border Guard Directorate of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) told Asia-Plus Friday afternoon.

According to him, one of Afghan drug traffickers has been detained while Tajik drug traffickers have headed for the Hamadoni district.

Border guards reportedly informed police and the drug traffickers were detained in the Vose district.  84.5 kilograms of raw opium and nearly two kilograms of heroin were confiscated from them, the source said.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted and an investigation is under way.