Afghanistan has been leading the world for drugs since the Taliban regime was overthrown, warns the United Nations drug control commission. It accounts for 75% of the world's raw opium-an annual average 3,600 tons, enough to produce 360 tons of heroin.
Europe is getting a half of its smuggled drugs from Afghanistan via Iran and Pakistan, up to 35% via Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and the rest via Tajikistan. Almost all heroin and more than 90% of the entire amount of drugs Russian border guards confiscated within a few preceding years was intercepted on the Tajik-Afghan and Russian-Kazakh frontiers, a FSN spokesman said to RIA Novosti.
Fifteen million standing clients-a majority in the richer West European countries-bring the long-established black market stability and affluence. Meanwhile, the drug market is spreading to Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Russia. As experts of the UN Office for Narcotics and Crime expect, the emergency market will recur to new selling patterns, with heroin prices reduced for Russia against those in the neighboring countries. Traffickers will reward themselves for shrinking profits with a greater clientele.
Smugglers never tire of inventing new subterfuges. They shadow border patrols, arrange observation points near frontier forts, and recur to misinformation and cutting-edge monitoring and communication gadgetry, said RIA Novosti's interlocutor.
The FSN joined hands with the Frontier Board of Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, and the Tajik Interior Ministry drug traffic squad for several operations along the Tajik-Afghan frontier this year. The action involved secret services and the military.
Supported by Russia's 201st Division, Russian and Tajik border guards seized and destroyed ten tons of Afghan opiates last year-a sizeable amount, considering the efforts it cost, but a drop in the ocean against a huge amount they missed. It was safely smuggled via the post-Soviet Central Asian countries to Siberia, the Urals and European Russia, and on to Europe.
"We certainly must pay frontier soldiers their dues, but we have to acknowledge that Russia is totally exposed to a massive heroin attack from south," said RIA Novosti's interviewee.
