Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan will create an anti-drug strategic centre in Kabul this year. The four countries' anti-drug agencies adopted a joint statement after a two-day anti-drug conference that ended in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, according to Itar-Tass. The quartet meeting agreed to boost efforts to counteract drug trafficking and production. They plan to upgrade a mechanism of joint rescue operations to destroy drug labs and prevent drug trafficking. "Russia will continue to train Afghanistan's police to fight groups of drug-traffickers," the head of the Russian federal drugs control service, Viktor Ivanov, told a news conference. He underlined that Russia together with anti-drug troops from Afghanistan and Tajikistan "completed the first stage of the operation codenamed Osminog (Octopus) to liquidate direct heroin supplies to the Moscow region." "Such operations will be conducted with Afghan and Tajik partners in the future," Ivanov said. "There is an agreement with Pakistan on conducting such operations along drug trafficking routes from Pakistan to Russia."
