DUSHANBE, January 9, Asia-Plus - Tajik drug police (Interior Ministry’s department for combating drug trafficking) have announced seizure of a large amount of heroin in Dushanbe. 

The drug police chief Fayzullo Gadoyev said that operation carried out in the area of the cement plant in Dushanbe yesterday led to the seizure of 9.832 kilograms of heroin.  According to him, police officers found the drugs in an Opel-Astra sedan belonging a 40-year-old resident of Dushanbe Hasan Majidov.  Majidov and his passenger, a 45-year-old Mahmadali Qurbonov, were arrested on suspicion of having been involved in drug trafficking.  

Criminal procedures have been instituted on drug-trafficking charges and an investigation is under way.  

In all, all the Tajik power-wielding and law-enforcement agencies seized 4,789 kilograms of drugs, including 2,442 kilograms of heroin, in 2006.