DUSHANBE, September 17 2010, Asia-Plus  -- A special three-day (September 13-16) operation by counternarcotics agencies of Tajikistan, Russia and Kazakhstan, dubbed Kanal-Yug (Channel-South), has led to the arrest of more than 900 drug dealers and the seizure of more than 1.3 tons of narcotics.

Russian drug control chief Viktor Ivanov remarked this yesterday during the video bridge “Moscow-Dushanbe.”

The head of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), in particular, noted  that some 1.2 tons of marijuana, more than 50 kilograms of heroin, nearly 50 kilograms of hashish and 400 kilograms of precursors had been intercepted in the operation.  6,000 criminal proceedings have been instituted and more than 1,000 of them have been instituted on drug-trafficking charges, Ivanov said.

The director of Tajik Drug Control Agency Rustam Nazarov highly appraised the results of the operation and expressed confidence that it would promote improvement of the drug situation in the region.

Representative of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Interior Altay Bashanov noted that the operation results demonstrated the necessity of carrying out such anti-drug operation.  “Such events allow efficiently responding to the drug situation in the region, and flexibly using forces and means,” Bashanov said.

The Kanal-Yug operation was carried out in the framework of the regional anti-drug operation, dubbed Kanal-2010 (Channel 2010).  The operation that was carried on the territories of all the three countries was aimed at stabilizing the drug situation in the Central Asian region as well as developing mechanism of use the Rapid Reaction Force of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in anti-drug operations.