Record Afghan heroin shipment seized

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Tajik frontier guards prevented a record-large shipment of Afghan heroin from being smuggled into Tajikistan Friday.

Novosti reported the haul of narcotics, weighing more than 850 pounds, was destroyed on the spot in the presence of Tajik and Russian reporters.

The Tajik Drug Control Office says more than 5.8 tons of narcotic substances, including four tons of heroin, has been seized so far this year in Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic bordering Afghanistan.

In all of 2002 less than half that amount -- 2.2 tons -- was intercepted.