Russia, U.S. help destroy more drug laboratories in Afghanistan
SOCHI. May 30 (Interfax) - Russian Federal Drug Control Service Director Viktor Ivanov has welcomed ongoing cooperation with U.S. special services in combating drug trafficking, including heroin production in Afghanistan.
"With the productive support of Russia and the U.S., special services of Afghanistan carried out a series of operations to destroy drug laboratories in Afghanistan and dismantle north-bound drug smuggling routes. The latest operation, code name Samshit, was completed just a week ago, resulting in the elimination of seven heroin laboratories active in the Russia-bound direction," Ivanov said at a meeting of the counter-drugs working group of the Russian-U.S. presidential commission in Sochi on Thursday.
"The aforementioned examples reliably confirm the existence of close cooperation in efforts to combat drugs. It [this cooperation] is a product of the Russian-American working group," Ivanov said.
Russia is prepared to further work together with the U.S. to crack down on efforts to advertise and spread psychotropic substances via the Internet, as well as combat drug money laundering through international banking systems, he said.
