DUSHANBE, April 1, 2015, Asia-Plus – Tajik drug control officers have help Afghan law enforcement authorities bust a heroin lab in Afghan Badakhshan.

According to the Tajik Drug Control Agency (DCA) press center, Tajik drug control officer received information that a resident of Ozumgul village in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan Province had organized a heroin lab.

The Afghan law enforcement authorities were informed of that and an operation by Afghan police led to the arrest of the lab owner and his accomplice.   135 kilograms of raw opium, 31 liters of ammonium chloride acid and special equipment for processing opium into heroin were found on the spot.

The lab owner was reportedly engaged in smuggling narcotics into Tajikistan and Pakistan.   

We will recall that Tajik counternarcotics agency has posted liaison officers in northern Afghanistan since 2004 and joint operations with the Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) have been successfully conducted.

Expert say that traditionally, processing of Afghan''s opium into heroin has taken place outside of Afghanistan; however, in an effort to reap more profits internally, Afghan drug kingpins have stepped up heroin processing within their borders.  Heroin processing labs have proliferated in Afghanistan since the late 1990s, particularly in the unstable southern region, further complicating stabilization efforts.  With the reemergence of the Taliban and the virtual absence of the rule of law in the countryside, opium production and heroin processing have dramatically increased, especially in the southern province of Helmand.