TAJIKISTAN SET TO INVESTIGATE THE JANUARY 4 DRUG SMUGGLING CASE.

DUSHANBE, January 6 (Itar-Tass) -- The government of Tajikistan held
an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday morning to consider the
contraband of 6.1 kg of heroin aboard a Dushanbe-Moscow flight and its
seizure by Russian customs officers at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on
January 4.

The meeting which was attended by the leaders of all of the Republic's
Security Structures was addressed by President Emomali Rakhmonov who
demanded a thorough investigation into the fact of smuggling heroin
aboard the Dushanbe- Moscow flight and taking to account the
personnel who checked in the baggage of the passengers on that flight.

The president's press secretary Zafar Saidov told Itar-Tass that
Emomali Rakhmonov regarded the incident in which Russian customs
officers at Domodedovo detained drug couriers with six kilogrammes of
heroin as doing "great moral damage to the Republic's authority in the
international arena."

President Rakhmonov told the leaders of the security services,
including the customs service and the state drug control commission,
to tighten control at the country's air, railway and motor road
"gateways". He also demanded that order be restored to the procedure
of recruiting staff in charge of controlling drug turnover.

Persons associated in any way with drug dealers or corrupt elements
"must be relieved of their duties regardless of what high posts they
fill and taken to administrative or criminal account," the president
said.

Emomali Rakhmonov pointed to the need for close interaction between
the Tajik and Russian security and law enforcement agencies and
customs services in carrying out measures to suppress drug smuggling,
in particular by air and railways.

The president called for a prompt solution to the problem of upgrading
technical equipment at the disposal of Tajikistan's customs services.

Vice Premier Abdurakhmon Azimov, who is in charge of the security
agencies, Security Council Secretary Amirkul Azimov, General
Prosecutor Salomiddin Sharopov and the heads of the Security and
Customs services had been invited to attend the government's
extraordinary meeting.