NUMBER OF DRUG-RELATED CRIMES GROWS IN RUSSIA








MOSCOW, MARCH 1, 2001. /From RIA Novosti Correspondent./ In Russia the number of registered drug-related crimes has grown by more than 2.5 times in the past five years, said Oleg Kharichkin, head of the inter-department centre to combat illicit drug trafficking under the Russian Interior Ministry, at a briefing today.


	Last year, 57,720 facts of illicit traffic in drugs were disclosed, which is 40% more than in 1999. Large batches of drugs from the Central Asian region have been confiscated. One of them, containing 113 kilos of heroin, was confiscated in the Chelyabinsk Region, another one with 60 kilos of heroin --  in the Tyumen Region, he noted. Altogether 244,000 drug-related crimes were disclosed, and legal action was taken against about 135,000 people.


	Law-enforcement bodies of Russia are establishing working contacts in the sphere with 70 structures in foreign countries, said Kharichkin. Attention is paid primarily to inter-action within the CIS countries and the memorandum on mutual understanding and cooperation in the sphere of control of illicit drug-trafficking in Central Asia.