vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #604 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Over 6.5 tons of various drugs were confiscated in Russia’s Far East in 2007, a third of all the drugs seized in the country last year, a press statement from the Far Eastern Department of Federal Drug Control Service reported Tuesday.

Overall, 15,300 drug-trafficking related crimes were registered last year, 14 percent more than in 2006. Most of the crimes are connected to organized groups selling and producing drugs.

A total of 74 cases of drug contraband were seized and five criminal groups eliminated in the territory, Ria Novosti cited the Service’s Vice head Oleg Kharichkin as saying Tuesday at the meeting of the regional drug trafficking control departments in the Far East aimed to discuss the 2007 results.

According to Kharichkin, narcotics police also prevented activities of international trafficking groups involved in smuggling synthetic drugs from China, detaining over 15 people.

The amount of heroin confiscated in the Far East in 2007 was 2.5 times higher than in 2006 reaching over 20 kilograms, while the amount of opium seized showed even more growth, with 18 kilograms, jumping by 3.4 times over 2006.

Overall, according to Anatoly Petrenko, head of the Far Eastern Department of Federal Drug Control Service, about 2,500 drug-trafficking related criminal cases were passed on to the courts last year.

In 2007, a total of 8.3 tons of wild-growing hemp, marijuana and other drug plants were destroyed in the territory, with hemp being the most widespread drug in the country.
Of all of Russia’s regions, Khabarovsk, Amur regions and the Jewish Autonomous region rank first in terms of hemp growing areas.

The rate of drug-related crimes in the Far East is 1.5 times higher than the average in Russia, the statement from the Department stressed. Russia’s Far East amounts to 36 percent of the country’s territory having only 4.6 percent of its population.