Tajikistan Sees Decline In Afghan Drug Volumes

A man carries opium poppies in the Afghan village of Bala Baluk, in Farah Province, in May.

Tajikistan is expecting a decline in the volume of drugs trafficked from Afghanistan this year due to better policing and a fungus that has attacked the opium poppy crop, according to Khalimdjon Makhmudov, who heads the operations and search department at Tajikistan's Drug Control Agency.

Makhmudov said that in the first six months of this year, Tajikistan seized nearly one-third less drugs than in the same period of last year.

He said his agency expects a decline of around 25 percent this year in the flow of drugs from Afghanistan through Tajikistan.

Afghanistan produces most of the world's opium, from which heroin is processed.

compiled from Reuters reports