Great Silk Road provides an easy and scenic route for drugs traveling from East to West

Caspian Business News -- BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Gulnaz Guliyeva -ö Ten years ago, when restoration of the Great Silk Road was started, the country-participants were eager to create a short route connecting Asia and Europe. However, the transport corridor has increased not only favorable trade and economic relations between countries, but also the work of customs and law enforcement officials due to the rise in illegal drug trafficking.
Last week, the International Conference on Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking via the ãGreat Silk Routeä brought together representatives of 14 countries, the World Customs Organization (WCO), the European Commission and the UNDP.
ãCurrently, there are people who wish to use the Great Silk Route with the malicious intention of abusing the economic integrity between countries, and try to increase illicit drug trafficking by way of it,ä stated the Head of the Department on Work with Law-enforcement Bodies of the Presidential Administration, Fuad Aleskerov, citing a speech by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. The Azeri government, recognizing the eradication of illegal drug smuggling as a national goal, expressed its support of the efforts of the international community in this direction. However, Ali Hasanov, the Prime Ministerâs Deputy, stressed, ãTwenty percent of Azeri lands are occupied by Armenia, and these uncontrollable territories are used for the cultivation and transit of narcotics.ä
Madat Guliyev, Head of the Department on the Anti-drug Struggle of the Internal Affairs Ministry, emphasized that special mini-laboratories for the production of heavy narcotics have been created in the occupied territory. ãWe definitely know that all conditions are present for the production of drugs and the conversion of light narcotics into heavier ones, heroin in particular. Drugs come into Azerbaijan from the occupied territory via Armenia and Iran, then go further to Russia, Georgia and Turkey.ä he stated.
The Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Michel Danet, admitted that narcoticsâ trafficking was a problem in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. ãUncontrolled territories could be viewed as an open market and everything could be happening there,ä he said and noted that the WCO was not able to resolve the occupation, because it was responsible only for customs issues. At the same time, Danet stated that the WCO would be willing to help Azerbaijan with controlling the drug traffic.
Guliyev said that controlling the Azeri-Iranian border would prove to be a complicated undertaking for the law-enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan. According to Zerkalo newspaper, the Chairman of the State Customs Committee Kemaleddin Heydarov stated that 60 percent of drugs seized by Azeri customs came from Iran and that they had uncovered one case of drugs coming from Turkmenistan. Last year, Azeri customs confiscated 43 kilogram of illicit drugs.

Head of the State Frontier Service Elchin Guliyev informed reporters that Azeri frontier guards had taken steps to organize an adequate counteraction to international terrorism, illegal migration and narcotic traffic. He noted that the largest consignment of narcotics they caught last year had weighed six kilograms and was intended for transit across the Azeri-Iranian border. The State Frontier Service caught the shipment in the course of special operations in Yardimli province.

According to the CIA, Iran has land boundaries with a total length of 5,440 km; specifically: Afghanistan ö 936 km, Armenia ö 35 km, Azerbaijan-proper ö 432 km, Azerbaijan-Naxcivan exclave ö 179 km, Iraq ö 1,458 km, Pakistan ö 909 km, Turkey ö 499 km, Turkmenistan ö 992 km.

Elchin Guliyev emphasized that the main source of drug distribution in the region is Afghanistan, where ãabout 4,000 tons of so-called heavy drugs are concentrated.ä
Danet also stated that Afghanistan constitutes a threat to the world as one of the main places of drug production and distribution. He said that there are two main routs for drug traffic from Asia to Europe. One of them lies from Afghanistan through Kazakhstan and Russia to the Balkan countries and into West Europe, and the other- from Afghanistan and Iran through the Balkans into Europe. Both directions are complicated to control, because 6,500 km-long Kazakhstan-Russian border passes over mountains, and the Iran-Afghanistan border passes through a desert.

Participants at the conference signed the Baku Declaration and expressed a willingness to strengthen interstate cooperation in the struggle against illicit drug traffic. Danet suggested that a program be drawn up specifying the next joint actions in this direction. He emphasized the importance of finding new tools in the anti-drug fight, because of the growing illegal turnover of drugs.