Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2001
Source: Times of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan)
Copyright: 2001 The Times of Central Asia
Contact:  http://www.times.kg/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1202
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

DRUGS ADDICTS DOUBLE IN UZBEKISTAN AMID TRAFFICKING INCREASE

TASHKENT. The number of drug addicts in former Soviet Uzbekistan has nearly 
doubled over the past year amid an increase in heroin smuggling from 
Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

Some 26,000 drug addicts are registered in this Central Asian state today 
compared to 14,000 last year, said Kamol Dusmetov, deputy head of 
Uzbekistan's national center for drug control.

Heroin seizures in Uzbekistan have also seen a sharp rise from 325 
kilograms in 1999 to 675 kilograms of the drug in 2000.

Police had seized 300 kilograms of narcotics this year, including some 70 
kilograms of heroin, Dusmetov added.

"Countries of the Central Asian region are turning into transit territories 
for the smuggling of drugs from Afghanistan. Part of the drugs naturally 
remain in these transit countries," Dusmetov said.

United Nations drugs experts believe that 65 percent of the narcotics 
produced in Afghanistan are trafficked across the porous and mountainous 
borders of former Soviet Central Asian states.

"The flow of drugs from Afghanistan is not about to decline," said 
Antonello Deleda, a regional representative with the UN Office for Drug 
Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP).

The ODCCP believes that around 100 tonnes of heroin are waiting to be 
smuggled across Afghanistan's border with Central Asia's Tajikistan with 
around another 5,000 tonnes inside Afghanistan.
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