A Novosibirsk court in Siberia has sentenced a foreign national to six years in a high security prison for trafficking some 30 pounds (14.5 kilograms) of uncut heroin in Russia, the regional Federal Security Service said on Monday.
Khakdod Goziev, whose exact nationality was not released but is from one of the former Soviet Central Asian republics, was detained on a train from the Urals city of Yekaterinburg to Novosibirsk. Goziev was transporting the heroin in a linen bundle with shoes. The amount of heroin would be five to seven times larger after it was cut with other elements.
About 90 percent of heroin consumed in Russia is smuggled from Afghanistan via former Soviet republics, including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Around 30,000 Russians die from heroin abuse every year.
Russia has criticized the U.S.-led international coalition in Afghanistan for not doing enough to curb drug trafficking, particularly for refusing to destroy opium poppy fields. Opium production is a major source of income for Afghanistan’s impoverished rural population, as well as for Taliban militants.
Afghan drug production increased dramatically after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban in 2001, and Russia has been one of the most affected countries, with heroin consumption rising steeply.