INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Tajikistan&s Presidential Drug Control Agency (DCA) says it has not registered any decline in the volume of drug trafficking from
neighboring Afghanistan.Referring to a recent UN Office on Drugs and Crime report, which stated opium cultivation and production had dropped
by 95%, a DCA official Mukbilsho Muyassar told the press that opioids are still flowing into Tajikistan.&According to the UN Office on Drugs
and Crime, opium poppy cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan has decreased by 95%, yet opioids, such as heroin and opium, as well
as Afghan-made methamphetamine, are still flowing into Tajikistan, with the reason behind this being that Afghan drug manufacturers generate
greater profits from methamphetamine production,& he said.Russia&s TASS news agency reported that according to recent reports by the DCA,
clandestine synthetic drug labs have started to emerge in Afghanistan to produce these drugs, which are then smuggled into Tajikistan and
later transported to other countries.The DCA stated that more than 2.5 tons of illicit substances were seized from circulation in regions of
Tajikistan bordering on Afghanistan in 2023, accounting for over half of all drugs seized in the Central Asian country last year.Muyassar
also said Tajikistan has received no information on any counter-narcotics efforts being implemented by Afghan authorities.Last December,
Atageldi Yazlyyev, director of the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Center for Combating Illicit Trafficking of Narcotic
Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and their Precursors (CARICC), also said that despite analysts& estimates of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan
plummeting, the center&s statistics indicated an increase in opium trafficking
He attributed this to the need to dispose of reserves from previous years& harvests.The Islamic Emirate has not yet responded to this claim
by Tajikistan, but it has repeatedly stated that it has taken serious steps to stop the cultivation and production of narcotics.In April
2022, the Islamic Emirate banned the cultivation of poppy across the country, promising to prosecute violators under Sharia law
A ban was also imposed on &the use, transportation, trade, export and import of all types of narcotic drugs.&The post Tajikistan sees no
drop in drug smuggling from Afghanistan first appeared on Ariana News.
