Russia-provided intelligence played the key role in an operation to track down and destroy a large batch of illegal drugs in Afghanistan, Federal Drug Control Service chief Viktor Ivanov said in Moscow on Tuesday.
"Afghanistan carried out an operation five days ago and eliminated six drug laboratories and destroyed a total of over 4 tonnes of drugs in heroin equivalent," he said.
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"It was a serious result, scored by the Afghan drug police, in conjunction with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and, first of all, Russia's Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN). We had obtained the intelligence that was subsequently used to carry out that sting operation," Ivanov said.
The 30th international conference of drug control services to be held in Moscow in June 2013 will center on joint operations to fight drug trafficking. It will be attended by the heads of drug control agencies from more than 100 countries, he said.
The Federal Drug Control Service announced on Sept. 13 that its operatives, led by the agency's deputy director, Col. Gen. Mikhail Kiiko, took part in an operation to destroy a drug laboratory in Afghanistan.
The FSKN's representative in Afghanistan Alexei Milovanov, and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration employees were involved in the operation directly. The operation was carried out under the guidance of Lt. Gen. Mirza Saefi, the intelligence chief of the Afghan Interior Ministry's Drug Police, according to the Federal Drug Control Service.
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