A study has revealed that up to 25% of illicit drugs produced in Afghanistan are passing through Central Asia.
The study, produced in Uzbekistan by the country’s National Analytical Center for Drug Control, reveals that up to 150 tons of Afghan heroin is smuggled through Central Asia each year and almost 30 tons of raw opium.
Of that full amount, 75% of it makes it beyond Central Asia through to Russia and Western Europe.
This has obvious consequences for both Central Asian locals and Europeans, but the report posits that the transit of the drugs is responsible for higher crime and addiction rates in Central Asia, more or less due only to the fact of their proximity to Afghanistan. The report also argues that the drug transit draws more locals into that trade.
The other interesting thing about the report is the sheer volume of drugs that is being transported by the “northern route” through Central Asia as opposed to the tradition route via Iran and Turkey - a fact that will have major implications for drug enforcement, especially in Russia.
