MOSCOW, January 18 (RIA Novosti) – Narcotics police have recently seized more than 90 kilograms of Afghan heroin in the Moscow Region, Russian drug czar Viktor Ivanov said Friday.
In one major bust, the police discovered a cache of drugs in the apartment of “a citizen of one of the Central Asian countries,” as part of a special operation conducted in the southeastern Moscow Region, he said. Police found 53 different packages holding at least one kilogram each of highly concentrated heroin.
As part of the same operation, narcotics officers uncovered a hideout in the Ramenskoe region in Moscow, where they arrested a courier and found more than 30 kilograms of heroin.
Ivanov did not clarify exactly when the operation, dubbed “Network,” took place.
He added that police also arrested a dealer on the M-4 highway late on January 14 and seized more than six kilograms of heroin.
According to official estimates, Afghanistan supplies about 90 percent of the world’s heroin, with Russia consuming about 21 percent of the global share. Drug traffickers have long since established routes from Afghanistan and neighboring Tajikistan, through Central Asia, and into Europe and Russia.
Up to 40,000 people die each year in Russia from illegal drugs, officials said, while Russians typically consume up to 80 tons of heroin per year.
