Russian border guards report on raw-opium production in Afghanistan

Russian border guards say Afghan raw-opium production will grow 2.5-fold as compared with the 2000 figures. This was disclosed by an official from the Russian federal border guard service at Monday's briefing in Moscow. The border guards say Afghanistan produced 3,300 tons of opium in 2000; the estimated production of raw opium is likely to climb up to 8,000 tons in 2001. Afghanistan produces 75 percent of the world's raw opium, with 80 percent of Afghanistan-produced heroin being illegally sold all across Europe, say the border guards. According to the UN drugs and crime prevention department, Russian border guard detachments stationed in Tajikistan have formed the first defensive belt protecting world nations from the drug danger, say the border guards. The Russian border guards are patrolling along the Tajik-Afghan and Tajik-Chinese sections of the border in accordance with the Russian-Tajik treaty of May 25, 1993 "On the status of the border guard troops of the Russian Federation deployed on the territory of Tajikistan." Counteracting drug smuggling across the Tajik-Afghan border is the main task facing the Russian border guard group located in Tajikistan.

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