A fifty-three-year-old Ibrohim Safarov, known by the nickname "Boim," has been detained in Turkiye and extradited to Tajikistan, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, reported on December 1, citing its sources.

Two investigative sources have reportedly confirmed that Safarov was brought to Dushanbe in early October.

“He has been charged with creating a network for selling ecstasy pills and possessing weapons,” one of the sources stated.

Ibrohim Safarov’s relatives, however, neither confirmed nor denied his arrest and extradition to Radio Ozodi.

In the past, Safarov, whom Russian media dubbed the "Tajik Pablo Escobar," was repeatedly linked to the transportation and sale of large consignments of narcotics.

In 2006, he was arrested in Russia with over 200 kilograms of heroin and sentenced to 19 years in prison.

In 2020, Safarov announced on his Facebook page that he had been released.  The conditions of his early release remain unknown.

"After his release, he moved to Turkiye and from there organized a drug distribution network in Tajikistan. About ten members of his group were arrested, and he was on the wanted list," an anonymous source of Radio Ozodi stated.

In July of this year, Tajikistan's Ministry of Internal Affairs arrested the 28-year-old Dushanbe resident Komron Hamroyev on suspicion of selling ecstasy pills.

The ministry reported that Hamroyev was a close relative of "Boim" and sold drugs in Dushanbe under his orders.

At the time, the ministry claimed that "Boim's group" sold drugs via social media platforms.

INDUSTRY