QURGHON TEPPA, August 7, Asia-Plus — Two officers from the directorate of the Drug Control Agency (DCA) for Khatlon were detained last weekend on suspicion of having taken bribe from a resident of the Jaloliddin Rumi (formerly Kolkhozobod) district, Asia-Plus has learned at the Khatlon directorate of the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption.  

The source at the Khatlon anticorruption directorate, said that two officers from the Khatlon counternarcotics directorate, Ali Ozov and Farrukh Ghafurov, had demanded $3,000 from the Jaloliddin Rumi resident for concealing a package of drugs found in his house.  

According to the source, Ozov and Ghafurov face charges under Article 319 of Tajikistan’s Criminal Penal – bribery.  

The source added that two another officers from the Khatlon counternarcotics directorate are also suspected of having been involved in that crime.  

In the meantime, the Jaloliddin Rumi resident said that the drugs had been found in his hothouse for growing lemons and he bears no relation to them, the source said.