DUSHANBE , April 27, Asia-Plus - 42 tons of drugs, with major part of them being heroin, have been intercepted in Tajikistan since 1996, Ms. Olga Muravlyova, head of the analytical center of Tajik Drug Control Agency (DCA), said.  

The first case of seizure of heroin (6.15 kilograms) was reported in Tajikistan in 1996, according to her.   

On the drug trafficking situation in last year, she noted that Tajikistan topped CIS in drug seizures.  Ms. Muravlyova says Tajikistan accounted for 67 percent of drugs seized in Central Asia and for 55 percent of drugs seized in the CIS in 2005.  

Last year, Tajik power-wielding structures and law enforcement agencies intercepted 4,613 kilograms of drugs, according to her.   

She also noted that of 7,000 people convicted by Tajik courts last year, more than 1000 people were given prison terms for drug trafficking.  

On a number of Tajik citizens arrested in the CIS states for drug trafficking, the DCA official said that last year, 450 Tajiks were detained in the CIS states for drug trafficking, which is 3.2 times fewer compared to 2000, when 1,800 Tajiks were detained in the CIS states for the same crime.