Russian border guards patrolling Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan have seized 180 kilogrammes of heroin in an operation that left 10 afghan drug traffickers dead, officials said on Wednesday. The massive haul of narcotics was the second in just over a month: on February 8, more than 200 kilogrammes of the drugs were seized on the frontier between war-torn Afghanistan and the former Soviet Republic. The border guard service said they surprised the traffickers who were attempting to cross the Piandj river on Tuesday, at a point some 230 km southeast of the Tajik capital Dushanbe. A shoot-out then followed, leaving 10 Afghans dead. The Russian border guards, who patrol the frontier under a deal between Moscow and Dushanbe, suffered no casualties. More than seven tonnes of afghan-produced narcotics were seized in Tajikistan last year, and more than 300 traffickers arrested. Seven of them were sentenced to death.
Bureau Report