Russia to open offices in eight countries to combat drug trafficking

Moscow, Jan 8 (UNI) With an aim at intensifying international efforts against drug trafficking, Federal Drug Control Service of Russia is planning to open eight offices in foreign countries this year.

''We plan to open offices in eight countries in 2007, '' a spokesman for the Federal Drug Control Service told Interfax news agency today.

He said missions will be opened in Afghanistan as well as the Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, through which heroin from Afghanistan is being trafficked.

''We also plan to open an office in Iran that borders on Afghanistan and in the United States to speed up interaction with our American colleagues,'' he said adding there will be one more mission in Vienna where the UN Office on Drugs and Crime is located.

The spokesman expressed the hope that with the opening of liaison missions in Central Asia, efforts against heroin trafficking from Afghanistan will intensify.

In particular, Russian special services are concerned over the surge in drug production in Afghanistan.

''The threat has now become sufficiently organised. We are taking measures to close this window,'' Russian Border Service head Vladimir Pronichev said last week.

At the beginning of the anti-terror operation in Afghanistan, the opium poppy crop area amounted to 70,000 hectares, and now it exceeds 160,000 hectares.

''Russia 'feels' the impact of the surge in drug trafficking from Afghanistan, including through the seizure of large quantities of drugs on the Russian-Kazakh border,'' Mr Pronichev said.

He added that the intelligence indicated that heroin production laboratories had moved from central Afghanistan to the Northern provinces.

The nine northern provinces have 40 heroin production laboratories, he said.

In 2005, Russia fully transferred control over the Tajik-Afghan border to the Tajik Border Force of Tajikistan. It is also helping to train local personnel.

According the the Drug Control Service, over 90 per cent of heroin in Russia is of Afghan origin.

UNI