DUSHANBE, January 12, Asia-Plus - Over the past year, mobile counternarcotics units deployed along the border with Tajikistan jointly with officers from Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) neutralized six transnational groups that dealt with transporting Afghan drugs from Tajikistan through the Central Asian states to the Russian Federation, Rustam Narziqulov, chief of the special forces of the Drug Control Agency (DCA), remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 12.  

Colonel Narziqulov noted that they are taking efforts to increase the efficiency of the fight against this international evil, including the collection and analysis of operational information and its exchange, the holding of joint measures such as “checked deliveries of drugs.”  According to him, the “checked deliveries” operations carried outlast year led to the seizure of more than 336 kilograms of drugs.  

The DCA special forces chief said that the duties of the mobile counternarcotics units deployed along the border include combating drug trafficking and preventing smuggling of drugs from Tajikistan into other countries.  

Speaking to journalists, the Tajik drug control chief, Rustam Nazarov, noted that the Agency’s mobile units yielded good results last year.  

The mobile counternarcotics units staffers include, primarily, former border troops, who served on a contractual basis, and junior officers, as well personnel from the country’s law enforcement, who have experience in combating drugs.