Police found 5 kilos of heroin found in high-ranking Tajik border guard’s car

Tajikistan police arrested a high-ranking Tajik border guard Monday after heroin was found in his car, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Police found the 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of heroin after stopping Imatsho Kanoatova, a top official in the border guard service's intelligence division, in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, Interior Ministry spokesman Makhmadullo Asadulloyev said.

He said it appeared Kanoatova was intending to smuggle the drugs out of the country.

Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, is one of the world's poorest countries.

It is a major transshipment point for heroin and opium from bordering Afghanistan to Russia and Europe, according to a U.S. State Department report.

Several top border guards and other law enforcement officials have been detained in recent months on charges of corruption and drug smuggling, reports the AP.

P.T.