In 2001 Russia Did Much To Seal Off International Drug Trafficking Channels

In 2001, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), in association with the Federal Frontier Service, State Customs Committee and the Interior Ministry, have held a series of operations to seal off international channels of drugs contraband. As meeting, Tuesday, with editors of the leading Russian media outlets, FSB director Nikolai Patrushev said that in special operations over two tonnes of drugs, including 600 kilogrammes of hard drugs, have been seized. For instance, in the Trassa, or Track, operative-search operations, which were carried out jointly with the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan, more than one tonne of hashish was seized. Three Kazakh nationals were detained and a criminal case initiated. Last spring, the federal FSB board for the Samara region held an operation against an organised criminal grouping specialising in illicit drugs trafficking. In this operation, 58 kilogrammes of heroin, over a tonne of marijuana and hashish were snatched, and local interior officers involved in the crime detained. Five criminal cases were opened and 12 persons brought to criminal account. In June 2001, for the first time in the history of interaction between the secret services of Russia and China, they held a joint operation. They ended the activities of a drug trafficking group of ethnic Koreans, residing in China, said Patrushev. A channel of bringing raw opium and heroin to Russia was sealed off.