Record batch of Afghan heroin seized in Russia - drug control chief
MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) - Over 175 kilograms of heroin have been seized in a police operation in Naberezhniye Chelny, said Federal Drug Control Service chief Viktor Ivanov.
The drugs were seized at the final stage of Operation Kartel, launched in Russia's Volga and Northwestern regions four years ago, he said.
"A BMW X-5 with Russian license plates was stopped in Naberezhniye Chelny early on November 23, and 90 kilograms of 50% concentration heroin was seized from its hiding places," Ivanov told reporters on Tuesday.
Another 85 kilograms of heroin was subsequently seized in searches at suspects' apartments. "This stage alone produced more than 175 kilograms of heroin," Ivanov said.
Seven hundred and fifty kilograms of heroin were "tracked down and destroyed" during the previous year, he said.
About 20 organizers, almost 100 drug traffickers and 15 intermediaries have been detained in Russia, he said.
The organizers of the criminal group, most natives of Central Asia, had been granted Russian citizenship on easy terms, he added.
The operation crushed a transnational criminal ring that supplied highly concentrated heroin to Russia. The cartel was active in Central Asia, Afghanistan and Gulf states, smuggling drugs across Central Asia, the neighboring former Soviet republics and countries of the European Union," Ivanov said.
Russia is alarmed by a growing inflow of heroin from Afghanistan through Central Asia, and the federal drug control service has opened its office in Afghanistan to deal with the problem.
Ivanov earlier said that Russia is the world's largest consumer of heroin, where almost 100,000 people die of overdose each year.
Ivanov said in June, citing his agency's latest report, that 8.5 million people in Russia use drugs regularly or occasionally, and 18.5 million have tried drugs at least once in their lives.
