Combat against illegal drug trafficking and their smuggle is also one of the global tasks of international community.
Illegal drug trafficking via the Azerbaijani territory is one of the priority tasks of the law enforcement bodies, said chief of the center of public relations of Azerbaijan’s National Security Ministry Arif Babayev.
According to Babayev, the combat against illegal drug trafficking and their smuggle is also one of the global tasks of international community.
“The crimes connected with illegal drug trafficking create conditions for financing terrorism and other global crimes, in addition, drugs damage the gene pool of the nation, which is why we consider these crimes to be a threat to national security”, Babayev said.
“In this connection the law enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan intensified combat against this type of trafficking. We hold constant events to reveal and solve crimes related to illegal drug trafficking. For example, we revealed such routes of drug transit, as Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia, Iran-Azerbaijan-Europe and even Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia-Japan. For example, if over 3 tons of drugs were confiscated from 2004 until 2009, last year the number of confiscated drugs made up 1.5 tons and over 40 criminal cases were instituted and over 130 people were brought to criminal responsibility.
The facts show the increase in the number of crimes, connected with this evil. Our biggest problem is that the occupied lands of Azerbaijan are also one of the main routes of drug trafficking, since de-facto there are beyond national jurisdiction and international control. We revealed several groups which admitted that they used this route to smuggle drugs via our country”, the official of the ministry said.
He also stressed successful cooperation of the National Security Ministry with its foreign colleagues in revealing such crimes. “For example, in the beginning of this year, the National Security Ministry signed an agreement on cooperation with the Russian Federal Service of control over drug trafficking.
Last year we held 13 operations with Russian colleagues during which we confiscated 1120 kg of drugs, 32 people were held accountable, including the citizens of Azerbaijan, Russia and other countries. Fighting drugs is one of the priority directions in our activity and we will strengthen this fight”.
The recent report of the US Department of State shows that one of the main routes of drug trafficking passes from Afghanistan and Iran via Azerbaijan to Europe and Russia.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
