MOSCOW - A huge cache of opium and other drugs worth roughly 1.7 million dollars (1.25 million euros) was seized in a major operation in six former Soviet bloc countries last week, the Russian anti-drug agency announced Tuesday.
The drug bust was "unprecedented in its scope," involving the countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
The 9.7 tonnes seized included some 191 kilos (421 pounds) of heroin, 226 kilos hashish, 4.3 tonnes of opium, 4.3 tonnes of marijuana, 11 kilos of cocaine, and 26 kilos of synthetic drugs, the agency said.
Afghanistan, the world's top heroin producer, participated in the joint anti-drug effort for the first time. The operation, codenamed "Kanal-2007" was conducted from August 28 to September 3, and also involved Ukraine and Poland, according to the Russian drug agency.
An Afghan drug trafficker was arrested in the sting, carrying 15 kilos of heroine and 35 kilos of cannabis. He was caught in Tajikistan, part of the transit route taking drugs to Russia and western Europe.
dth/lb/tw
09/04/2007 16:12 GMT