41.2 Million
The Kazakh government will spend $41.2 million to stem drug trafficking in its vast territory, announced Kazakh Interior Minister Kalmuhambet Kasymov in November 2012. About $27 million will be spent to strengthen the border, while $5.3 million will bolster customs agencies. The remainder will be spent on the Interior Ministry.
Two of the major problems facing Kazakh security are the steady infiltration of Afghan heroin and the production of raw heroin in the Shu Valley of Kazakhstan’s southern Zhambyl province. Drug trafficking not only fuels addiction and spreads disease, it is a major source of funding for terrorist groups, which represent a significant security threat to the region.
An estimated 50 tons of Afghan heroin transits the “northern route” into Central Asia each year. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said that figure increased by an alarming 18 percent in 2012.
“I can tell you that many drugs are transported in bulky goods, by air and in freight cars that we don’t have any access to,” Kasymov said. “That’s why we are enhancing the customs and border services and, can I say, that we already have achieved good results: Our employees are finding the hiding places with the use of special equipment — the places that we could not detect before.”
Central Asia Newswire