Old Reserves of Afghan Drugs Smuggled To Central Asia, Alerts Russian Security Council

Nikolai Patrushev, the Russian Security Council's Secretary, has warned that narcotics produced in Afghanistan are currently being smuggled into Central Asian nations from existing old reserves.

Patrushev highlighted that data show no decline in the smuggling of drugs from Afghanistan into Central Asia.

The Secretary of the Russian Security Council issued this caution during a session in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital, which focused on the situation in Afghanistan, particularly the issue of narcotics trafficking into Central Asia.

According to a report by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti on Friday, Patrushev has been quoted as saying, "Shortly, we should anticipate the illicit distribution of opium drugs by criminal organisations from the reserves accumulated in previous years."

He stressed on the critical need for detecting these consignments and pinpointing their potential storage locations.

Just a week prior, Tajikistan's Drug Control Agency declared, contrary to the Taliban's prohibition on drug production declarations, that Tajikistan has not observed any reduction in drug trafficking from Afghanistan.

The agency has reported that narcotics production is being carried out in concealed labs within Afghanistan.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime previously indicated in a report that opium cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan had seen a reduction of 95%. However, the manufacture of synthetic narcotics, particularly methamphetamine, has seen an upsurge in Afghanistan under the Taliban's governance.