DUSHANBE, September 28, 2011, Asia-Plus -- Representatives from Russia’s Interior Ministry have arrived in Tajikistan to discuss with their Tajik colleagues joint efforts to combat drug trafficking.

According to the Tajik Interior Ministry’s press center, a meeting of the working group of the Interior Ministries of Tajikistan and Russia, co-chaired by Tajik Deputy Minister of Interiors, Anvar Taghoymurodov, and his Russian counterpart Igor Alyoshin, is going on in Dushanbe today.

The meeting participants are reportedly discussing issues related to carrying out joint operations to discover and shut down channels through which Afghan narcotics are being smuggled via Tajikistan into the Russian Federation.

The sides will work out a joint plan of actions to combat drug trafficking that will include exchange of operational information, the source said. 

According to the statistical data from Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry, Tajik and Russian police have carried out joint operations, dubbed Search and Illegal Immigrant over the first eight months of this year.  44 persons wanted for perpetration of various crimes in Tajikistan have been detained in Russia and extradited to Tajikistan over the report period.

Since the beginning of this year, Tajik and Russian police have reportedly carried out two special operations, “checked deliveries [of drugs].”  The operations have resulted in seizure of some 12 kilograms of Afghan heroin.