United Nations Radio

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has praised the seizure last week by the police of the United Arab Emirates of a record amount of heroin from 19 Afghan suspects.

The shipment of more than 200 kilograms of high-purity heroin is worth around 11 million US dollars. UNODC says it was smuggled in modified fuel tanks of trucks transporting produce. The smugglers were planning to sell the drugs outside the country. Bernard Frahi, deputy director of operations of the UNODC, says this is an important development in efforts to curtail the Afghan opium cultivation and trade.

"Traffickers have often used over the years the land routes through Pakistan and Iran, but definitely it has been one of our important concerns over the past years the use that traffickers could do through the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf states at large."

Since 2001, UNODC has been offering technical assistance to Dubai police in the field of drug control and drug law enforcement.

Reporting for UN Radio, I'm Bissera Kostova.

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