Russian police seize $60 million worth of heroin in 10 days

PanARMENIAN.Net - Police in Russia’s capital have seized more than 150 kilograms of heroin, worth estimated $60 million, in the past 10 days, Russia’s drug czar said Thursday, July 11, according to RIA Novosti.

That amount of heroin, believed to have come from No. 1 opiate producer Afghanistan, is enough for 6.5 million individual hits, according to the Federal Drug Control Service. For comparison, Moscow’s total population is estimated at 12 million.

Almost a quarter of the heroin produced in war-torn Afghanistan passes through Central Asia, and 75 percent of that is “destined for the Russian market,” according to a report last year by the United Nations.

The heroin seized in Moscow this month was discovered in two separate busts, one for 37 kilograms and the other for 115, drug control service chief Viktor Ivanov said Thursday, adding that three Tajik nationals were detained in connection with at least one of the shipments.

More than a hundred kilograms of heroin, in 300-to-400-gram packs, had been hidden in fruit pallets less than 2 centimeters thick, the drug chief added.