DUSHANBE, March 19, Asia-Plus - More than 55 kilograms of drugs were intercepted at the Tajik-Afghan border in Khatlon on the night of March 15-16.  

Lieutenant-Colonel Khushnud Rahmatulloyev, a spokesman for the border protection directorate of the State Committee for National Security, said in an interview with Asia-Plus that one of the frontier posts deployed in the Khatlon province had received information that Thursday night Afghan trafficker will smuggle a large amount of drugs into Tajikistan.   

According to him, their troops organized ambush on the bank of the Panj River.  When the border guards spotted the drug trafficker, who was crossing the border river, they tried to detain him.  Later they fired at the trespasser after he tried to flee. 

“Although the trespasser was wounded he managed to return to the continuous territory,” said the spokesman, “48 packages containing more than 40 kilograms of heroin and 15 kilograms of cannabis were found on the scene.”