VZCZCXRO7810
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHPW RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #1318/01 2910759
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 170759Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1057
INFO RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE VIENNA AU
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0168
RUCNCLS/SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 0162
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEABND/DEA HQ WASHINGTON DC
RUEAWJA/DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 001318 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN (HUSHEK) 
STATE FOR INL/AAE (BUHLER) 
JUSTICE  FOR (DUCOT AND NEWCOMBE) 
DEFENSE FOR OSP/P 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SNAR KCRM KJUS PGOV PREL RF TI
SUBJECT:  TAJIKISTAN: NARCOTICS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND JUSTICE SECTOR 
JULY - SEPTEMBER UPDATE 
 
REF: Dushanbe 1316 
 
¶1. (U) Summary:  The Ambassador and Foreign Minister signed letters 
of agreement to provide over $13 million in additional INL border 
security, police, anti-crime, and justice sector assistance to 
Tajikistan.  This status report and reftel cover these and prior 
projects.  Tajikistan's Drug Control Agency worked with Afghanistan 
and other neighboring countries, improved drug interdiction and 
resulted in the seizure of 2,754 kilos of drugs during the first 
nine months of 2008, including 1,152 kilos seized by the Tajikistan 
Drug Control Agency alone, a 25.6% increase over last year.  The 
Border Guards too have been active with multiple instances of 
hundreds kilo drug seizures.  Since the beginning of 2008, in the 
Shurabad border area alone Border Guards had fifteen firefights with 
armed drug smugglers.  Judges are handing down stiff sentences to 
convicted foreign drug traffickers.  Working with anti-drug services 
from Russia and elsewhere, the Sugd Regional Counter-Narcotics 
Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs broke up three 
narco-trafficking rings.  The Agency for State Financial Control and 
Combating Corruption opened criminal cases against 122 state 
officials (more than half of them are law enforcement and security 
agencey officers) for abuse of office, bribery, and embezzlement of 
state funds.  End summary. 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 
¶2. (U) On August 2, Ambassador Jacobson and Foreign Minister Zarifi 
signed two letters of agreement which provide more than $13 million 
to continue border security and police programs to enhance 
Tajikistan's security and to launch justice sector projects to 
improve rule of law and provide access to justice. 
 
¶3. (U) With this assistance, the International Narcotics and Law 
Enforcement program provided more than $28 million in assistance to 
support Tajikistan's security, rule of law and counter narcotics 
efforts since 1992.  Overall, the United States provides more than 
$40 million of assistance annually to Tajikistan.  These funds 
contribute to Tajikistan's security, economic development, 
democratic freedom, and the health and education of Tajikistan's 
citizens. 
 
¶4. (U) The Director of Tajikistan's Drug Control Agency (DCA), 
Rustam Nazarov, attended a meeting of the XXVI International Drug 
Enforcement Conference (IDEC) in Istanbul, Turkey July 8-10.  The 
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration-organized conference brought 
together more than 300 high-level law enforcement officials from 93 
countries throughout the world.  Conference participants focused on 
pharmaceutical abuse, the nexus of drugs and terrorism, money 
laundering, and intelligence sharing across multi-national law 
enforcement agencies.  General Nazarov reported on the drug 
situation in Tajikistan and drug control measures being taken in 
Central Asia. 
 
¶5. (U) On August 11 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 
sponsored a two-week training course to improve the skills of 15 
Afghan police, customs, and border service officers to fight against 
drug trafficking.  Officers from the Drug Enforcement Agency and the 
Drug Control Agency jointly conducted the training. 
 
MUTUAL COOPERATION 
QMUTUAL COOPERATION 
 
¶6. (U) On July 9, the Drug Control Agency Deputy Director Vaisiddin 
Azamatov held joint meetings with the Afghan Minister of Interior, 
Zarar Ahmad Moqbil.  The officers discussed cooperation and 
expansion of joint efforts to fight drug trafficking.  Azamatov 
briefed the Afghan minister on the drug situation in Tajikistan and 
measures taken by the Tajik government to improve the efficiency of 
the law enforcement agencies to fight drug trafficking. 
 
NARCOTICS AND WEAPONS SEIZURES 
 
¶7. (U) During the first nine months of 2008, the Drug Control Agency 
and other law enforcement and security services seized 2,754 kilos 
of drugs.  DCA officers single-handedly seized over 1,152 kilos of 
drugs, a 25.6% increase over the comparable period of 2007, 
according to the Analytical Information Department of the 
counternarcotics agency.  Drug control agency officers carried out 
 
DUSHANBE 00001318  002 OF 003 
 
 
15 joint operations with the other Tajik counternarcotics agencies 
seizing an additional 233 kilos.  The DCA carried out 37 joint 
operations with Afghan and Kazakh law enforcement services and 
seized an additional 1,369 kilos of drugs, including 444 kilograms 
of heroin. 
 
 
¶8. (U) On July 16, Tajik law enforcement officials seized 36 kilos 
of raw opium and 114 grams of hashish in the Vahdat district located 
17 kilometers east of Dushanbe.  Ministry of Internal Affairs 
Counter-Narcotics Department officers arrested a resident of 
Khatlon's Muminabad district and initiated criminal proceedings 
against him. 
 
¶9. (U) The Committee for National Security reports that officers 
seized nearly 100 kilos of drugs in Hamadoni district.  On July 14, 
border guards on routine patrol tried to detain a group of Afghan 
drug traffickers who were illegally crossing the Tajik-Afghan border 
river in Khatlon's Khamadoni district.  Border guards fired on the 
traffickers who fled back to Afghanistan.  Five sacks containing 98 
kilograms of narcotics, including 10 kilograms of heroin, 52 
kilograms of raw opium, and 36 kilograms of cannabis were found at 
the scene. 
 
¶10. (U) On August 7, also in the Khatlon area, Border Guards 
detained a Tajik national at the Afghan border in Shurabad district 
and confiscated more than 140 kilograms of hashish and five 
kilograms of heroin as well as a Kalashnikov machine-gun. 
Authorities opened criminal proceedings against the drug trafficker 
and an investigation is under way. 
 
¶11. (U) On September 16 and 23 in the Yol area of the Tajik-Afghan 
border the Border Guards seized 252 kilograms of narcotics including 
30 kilos of heroin and 222 kilos of hashish.  According to press 
reports, several traffickers and two border guards were killed in 
the skirmishes but the Border Guards will not confirm this 
information. 
 
¶12. (U) This year the Border Guards have had fifteen firefights with 
armed drug smugglers in the Shurabad border area alone.  The Border 
Guards and security officers on this stretch of the border seized 
452 kilograms of drugs, including 40 kilograms of heroin since the 
beginning of the year. 
 
¶13. (U) During the course of an investigation of an earlier arrest 
of a Tajik drug smuggler which netted 5.2 kilos of drugs, the 
smuggler provided information about an additional 14 kilos of heroin 
which DCA officers seized in the Khatlon area.  The smuggler claimed 
the drug belonged to an Afghan smuggler.   DCA officers continue to 
investigate. 
 
¶14. (U) According to the Customs Service, they discover about two 
kilos of heroin hidden in dried apricots during passenger inspection 
at the Dushanbe airport prior to a flight to Samarra, Russia on 
September 10.  The drugs reportedly belong to Bakhtiyor Junaydov, a 
resident of GBAO's Roshtqala district.  Authorities are pressing 
charges against Junaydov under Article 200 (illicit drug 
trafficking); Article 32 (criminal attempt); and Article 289 
(contraband) of Tajikistan's Criminal Code. 
 
CONVICTIONS 
 
¶15. (U) On September 14 Saddriddin Toshev, a judge from the 
Shohmansur area of Dushanbe, sentenced three foreign nationals for 
drug trafficking.  The court sentenced Ms. Garcia Joanna Gardovski, 
Qdrug trafficking.  The court sentenced Ms. Garcia Joanna Gardovski, 
a Philippine national, to 13 years in prison for attempted transport 
of three kilograms of heroin to Istanbul.  The court also sentenced 
Makkongza Azvidin Flora, a South African national, to 15 years in 
prison.  Inspectors found six kilograms of heroin in his luggage. 
Tajik law enforcement officers traced the drugs to Khonzoda valadi 
Butkhoja, the Afghan national main supplier.  The court sentenced 
him to 16 years in prison. 
 
DRUG-TRAFFICKING GROUPS 
 
¶16. (U) Since the beginning of this year, the Sugd Ministry of 
Internal Affairs counternarcotics directorate (northern Tajikistan) 
broke up three groups of narco-traffickers and solved 16 
 
DUSHANBE 00001318  003 OF 003 
 
 
drug-related crimes.  During the reporting period, the 
Counter-Narcotics Directorate seized over 332 kilograms of 
narcotics, including 129 kilograms of heroin.  During the January - 
June period, authorities in the Russian Federation detained 11 
residents of the Sugd province for drug smuggling including four 
from Mastchoh, three from Spitamen, two from Jabbor Rasulov and one 
from Pendjikent.  Law enforcement agencies conducted a large-scale 
anti-drug operation, dubbed Poppy-2008, involving officers from the 
counternarcotics directorate and other law enforcement agencies of 
the Sugd region. 
 
REWARDS FOR FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS 
 
¶17. (U) The President of Tajikistan bestowed awards on three Drug 
Control Agency officers for exemplary service combating drug 
trafficking.  The President presented the "Spitamen Level II" award 
to senior investigator Mirnemat Dodometov; the "Khizmati Shoista" 
award to Saidjon Nehmonov, the head of Investigation Department of 
DCA; and presented a Certificate of Merit to Murodqul Hazratkulov, 
the head of Administration Department at DCA.  Since the 
establishment of the Drug Control Agency 21 members have received 
awards. 
 
CORRUPTION 
 
¶18. (U) Officers of the Khatlon Anti-Corruption Department 
discovered serious financial violations in the Pyandj Production 
Cooperative "Zohiriyo".  A spokesperson for the Anti-Corruption 
Agency said that Jalol Zoidov, director of "Zohiriyon" concealed 
income and had not paid 348,876 somonies in taxes (equivalent to 
more than $100,000).  The Khatlon Anti-Corruption Department began 
criminal proceedings against Zoidov under the provisions of Article 
291 of Tajikistan's Criminal Code - tax evasion. 
 
¶19. (U) During the first six months of this year the Agency for 
State Financial Control and Combating Corruption reports it opened 
criminal cases against 122 state officials.  The officials face 
charges of abuse of office, bribery, and embezzlement of state 
funds.  Anti- corruption Agency officials began more than half of 
the criminal proceedings against officers from the law enforcement 
agencies and security services including 34 against police officers, 
six against tax officers, five against customs officers, nine 
against officers from the Ministry of Defense, two against border 
officers, six against officials with the Ministry of Justice, and 
three against judges. 
 
 
¶20. (U) As an example, the spokesperson outlined the case against 
Rahmon Sharipov, chief of the police directorate in Khatlon's Rumi 
district.  The spokesman said "Sharipov faces charges of abuse of 
office and bribery.  The investigation has established 34 instances 
of bribe-taking for 10,000 somonies and $12,000.  Officers also 
found more than 5,000 somonies and $41,000 as well as several 
unregistered criminal cases in his house."  In all, the 
Anti-Corruption Agency detected 504 corruption-related crimes over 
the report period of which public servants committed 122. 
 
INL PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION 
 
¶21. (U) During the reporting period, INL Dushanbe continued to 
implement projects in border security, policing, and the with 
ABA/ROLI in the justice sector.  Upon signing of ALOA 7 and 8 INL 
began implementation of new projects in eastern Tajikistan's as well 
Qbegan implementation of new projects in eastern Tajikistan's as well 
as in the justice sector, anti-TIP, and demand reduction sectors. 
Full report reftel. 
 
JACOBSON