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Uzbekistan Takes on Drug Traffickers
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Keles, Uzbekistan, June 2009-“When I was getting used to heroin, it was because of despair,” Hasan Akhmedov told the IRIN news agency. “I suffered a lot. Sometimes there was no meat at home, and sometimes there was not even flour.” Uzbekistan’s Akhmedov is one of a growing number of individuals ensnared in a web of drug trafficking in the region. The web begins in the poppy fields of Afghanistan, extends through Central Asia and then on to drug markets in Russia and Europe. In response, Uzbekistan, the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme have opened a new drug detection center in Keles, a major rail hub just outside Tashkent. The new building houses a drug profiling unit that will assist several Uzbekistan agencies with drug searches and drug detection. Seized drugs are then burned. The Drug Profiling Unit at Keles consists of the Border Guards, Customs, Ministry of Interior and Security Service. Drug trafficking has exploded in the region in the last decade, particularly since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. The growth has been spurred by cheap prices, unevenly guarded borders, a global demand for opiates and a central location at the crossroads of Asia. Trafficking also provides a ready source of income for those looking to get ahead in an impoverished region. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, more than 433 kg of heroin was seized in Uzbekistan and nearly 500 kg in Tajikistan in the first half of 2008. Drug-related arrests have also doubled in Uzbekistan in a year. Much of the heroin and opium originates in Afghanistan and is then transported across the border to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. A small amount is used for domestic consumption, but most of the drugs are shipped to Russia and Europe. The OSCE reports 99 percent of the drug-related income is kept by organized groups of traffickers. Meanwhile, the larger social costs are exponential. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime cites trafficking as a major source of funding for terrorists, a source of criminal activity and a deterrent to economic activity. Trafficking also contributes to rising rates of HIV/AIDS, particularly through the use of infected needles. The new drug profiling building in Keles is seen as one way to address the problem by reducing supply. Implemented by the United Nations Development Programme and funded by the European Commission, the DPU is part of a broader effort centering on drug control at airports and railway stations. In the meantime users such as Akhmedov will continue to battle addiction. Akhmedov, from a small village near the Afghanistan border, told IRIN, “When I started using drugs, I had a feeling that there were no problems at all,” a reality that with heroin soon proves all too illusory. |
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