FSKN claims being more efficient than Interior Ministry in fighting drug crime
MOSCOW. Feb 6 (Interfax) - Russia's Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) has said that reports about the Interior Ministry s making a decisive contribution in fighting drug crime while the FSKN is proving inefficient are untrue.
"We took note of the extensive quoting in mass media of the information that 64% of resolved crimes related to illicit drug trafficking are attributed to the Russian Interior Ministry and only 33% to the FSKN. The reader must deduce from this that the decisive contribution in the fight against drug crime is made by the Interior Ministry while the FSKN is inefficient," an FSKN spokesperson told Interfax on Thursday evening.
"However, these figures, taken out of the context, in an isolated form, without taking into account the content of criminal cases, their scale and complexity, are not just one-sided, they are misinforming," the FSKN said.
"The number of investigated criminal cases is typically a gross indicator and does not attest to the efficiency of law enforcement bodies. This begs for comparison with the number of hectares under corn crops being an absolute indicator of efficiency in the agricultural sector during the Khrushchev era," the agency said.
On January 30 the Vedomosti newspaper reported that the FSKN and the Federal Migration Service could become part of the Interior Ministry. Citing a high-ranking source close to the Interior Ministry, Vedomosti said on its website that the authorities were discussing a proposal to abolish the FSKN as an independent body and to transfer part of its personnel to the Interior Ministry.
A spokesperson for the FSKN said on Thursday: "Over the past five years the FSKN has busted nine times as many criminal drug groups, effectively, drug cartels, as have been by all law enforcement bodies between them."
"One might expect from the Interior Minister not a two-fold but a 30-fold increase in the number of criminal cases, given that the Interior Ministry employs 30 times as many people as the FSKN does," the FSKN spokesperson said.
According to the official figures from the FSKN, of 8 million drug users in Russia 1.5 million are addicted to Afghan heroin. Each year drugs kill between 50,000 and 70,000 young people in Russia, the FSKN said.
