Two southeastern regions of district Volga-the Samara and the Orenburg-border on Kazakhstan, which is prominent on the drug route from Central Asia.
Drug traffic detection has spectacularly improved since last year. The latter half of 2003 brought 2,029 successful instances, while this year's ten months 5,023-150 per cent more, said Mr. Makarov.
He highlighted the year's biggest confiscations-a 700 kilogram batch of raw opium and a 60 kilogram of heroin in Bashkortostan, and 142 kilograms of heroin in Mordovia.
The better-off Samara, Saratov, Penza and Nizhni Novgorod regions lead the area for drug addiction. That is natural-more money more addicts, remarked the officer.
As board statistics have it, more than a half of drugs circulated in Russia come from other countries. Thus, Afghanistan and the neighbouring Tajikistan account for a greater part of heroin, coming via Kazakhstan.
Afghanistan is principal and the longest-established drug supplier to Western Europe. Its opium poppy yield for this year threatens to make five thousand tonnes-360 tonnes in heroin equivalent, warn United Nations experts.
Drugs come to the Volga country by all transport means available. Traffickers are rampant in Samara and Bashkortostan, who swallow drugs in plastic containers. One can smuggle in a kilogram in his stomach. The Orenburg Region is known for car cachets. Big batches also travel by rail, said Mr. Makarov.
