VZCZCXRO6999
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHNEH RUEHPW RUEHSK RUEHVK
RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #0900/01 2081018
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 271018Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0579
INFO RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 0029
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEABND/DEA HQ WASHDC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 1238

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 DUSHANBE 000900 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN (PRESCOTT) 
INL/AAE (BUHLER) 
JUSTICE FOR (DUCOT AND NEWCOMBE) 
DEFENSE FOR OSD/P 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV SNAR KCRM KJUS TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: JUNE 2009 LAW ENFORCEMENT DEVELOPMENTS 
 
DUSHANBE 00000900  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Tajik border guard wounded and Afghan drug 
trafficker killed in a skirmish on the border in the southern 
Khatlon province.  Counter Narcotics Department of the Ministry 
of Internal Affairs seized 101 kilos of heroin in Sugd.  Traffic 
Police Officers seized 50 kilos of heroin in a car.  Ministry of 
Internal Affairs seized 25 kilos of opiates in two separate 
operations in Shurabad and Chkalovsk.  Police Officers seized 28 
kilos of narcotics in Farkhor district.  Ministry of Internal 
Affairs discovered large arms cache in Rudaki district.  Drug 
Control Agency burns 635 kilos of drugs.  Tajikistan marks 
International days against drug abuse and illicit trafficking. 
Drug Control Agency marks its tenth anniversary.  President 
Rahmon appoints a Director of the National Center for 
Legislation.  U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan launches ground 
breaking ceremony of the Border Guards Training Academy in 
Dushanbe.  Ex-Minister of Internal Affairs commits suicide.  End 
summary. 
 
 
 
DRUG SEIZURES 
 
 
 
¶2. (U) On June 2 during a skirmish on the border in the southern 
Khatlon province one Tajik border guard was wounded and one 
Afghan drug trafficker was killed.  Khoushnoud Rahmatulloyev, a 
spokesman for the Main Department of Border Guards Forces within 
the State Committee on National Security, said that border 
guards from the Pyanj border unit on a routine patrol spotted 
and tried to detain a group of armed persons who were illegally 
crossing the border river.  Border guards fired when the 
trespassers tried to flee.  Border guards killed one trespasser 
and others escaped.  One Tajik border guard was wounded in the 
skirmish and taken to the hospital.  Border guards seized more 
than 10 kilograms of raw opium and one Makarov pistol at the 
scene of clash.  According to Rahmatulloyev the traffickers are 
members of a ring led by Afghan national Qori valadi Hoshim and 
this group has illegally crossed the border several times. 
 
 
 
¶3. (U) On June 16 Counter Narcotics officers in Sugd seized more 
than 100 kilograms of heroin.  A source at the Sugd Counter 
Narcotics Department received anonymous phone call at around 
1:30 a.m. that two persons were trying to transport a large 
amount of narcotics from the Qistaquz jamoat in the Bobojon 
Gafurov district to neighboring Kyrgyzstan.  When the officers 
tried to detain the drug traffickers, the traffickers abandoned 
the drugs and escaped.  Counter Narcotics officers seized a 
bicycle and four bags with 100 packages containing 101 kilograms 
of heroin. 
 
 
 
¶4. (U) On June 20 Traffic police Officers intercepted a large 
amount of heroin being transported from Dushanbe to Sugd 
province.  The traffic police officers found 50 kilograms of 
heroin while searching a Toyota Avensis vehicle belonging to a 
Dushanbe resident at the Chorbogh traffic police checkpoint in 
the Varzob district of Dushanbe.  Traffic police arrested the 
driver and his passenger on suspicion of drug trafficking. 
 
 
 
¶5. (SBU) On June 3 Ministry of Internal Affairs officers seized 
more than 25 kilograms of narcotics in two separate operations. 
Police officers arrested Bobosho Sharipov, a resident of 
Khatlon's Shurabad district.  Police Officers seized almost 16 
kilograms of raw opium from him.  The same day, police officers 
arrested Abduqahhor Mavlonov, a resident of the northern city of 
Chkalovsk, on suspicion of drug trafficking.  Police officers 
confiscated about 10 kilograms of heroin from him. 
 
 
 
¶6. (U) On June 12 police officers carried out an operation in 
the village of Margzor in Khatlon's Farkhor district, arresting 
a local resident and confiscating 28 kilograms of narcotics, 
including 24 kilograms of marijuana; the remaining four 
 
DUSHANBE 00000900  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
kilograms were heroin and raw opium. 
 
 
 
WEAPONS SEIZURES 
 
 
 
¶7. (U) On June 16 Ministry of Internal Affairs officers 
discovered a large arms cache in Rudaki district near the 
village of Tojikobod in the Zaynobod jamoat.  Ministry of 
Internal Affairs officers seized a Star-Sal-22 pistol 
(phonetically spelled), Sat pistol, Makarov pistol, a western 
type submachine gun with two magazines, a Winchester-Cobra 
carbine, two Kalashnikov assault rifles, a hunting gun, eight 
F-1 hand grenades, three RGD-5 hand grenades and 446 bullets of 
different caliber. 
 
 
 
¶8. (U) On June 13 Ministry of Internal Affairs officers 
discovered an arms cache reputedly from the 1990's civil war, 
containing a Kalashnikov submachine gun and 1,133 bullets of 
different caliber at a apartment building construction site on 
Huvaidulloev Street in Dushanbe. 
 
 
 
DRUGS BURNED 
 
 
 
¶9. (U) On June 26 the Drug Control Agency and the 
Counter-Narcotics Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs 
burned 635 kilograms of drugs at the Tajiktekstilmash plant in 
Dushanbe.  The total included 28 kilograms of heroin and the 
remainder was raw opium and cannabis drugs.  Tajik law 
enforcement authorities confiscated the drugs during 2008-2009. 
Representatives from the courts, prosecutor's offices and press 
attended the burning, timed to coincide with the International 
Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. 
 
 
 
DRUG DEMAND REDUCTION 
 
 
 
¶10. (U) On June 26 Drug Control Agency held drug demand 
reduction events in five summer camps in the Varzob district. 
The Agency organized various sports activities and psychological 
training to give 250 children an opportunity to realize their 
creative abilities.  The events were dedicated to the 
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. 
The main objective of the events was to emphasize not leaving 
children alone with their problems during summer holidays and to 
interest children in legal activities.  The DCA held similar 
events in all regions of the country.  (Note: By resolution 
42/112 on December 7 1987, the General Assembly of the Tajik SSR 
agreed to observe June 26 as the International Day against Drug 
Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as an expression of the Republic's 
determination to strengthen action and cooperation to combat 
drug abuse.  This resolution recommended further action with 
regard to the report and conclusions of the 1987 International 
Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.  End note.) 
 
 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 
 
¶11. (U) On May 30 the Drug Control Agency held a ceremonial 
meeting dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the establishment 
of the Drug Control Agency under the President of Tajikistan. 
President Emomali Rahmon as well as heads of counternarcotics 
agencies of Central Asia's states, Azerbaijan and Russia and 
senior representatives of Tajik law enforcement agencies and 
international originations active in Tajikistan attended the 
meeting. 
 
DUSHANBE 00000900  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
 
 
 
¶12. (U) Background: President Rahmon decreed the establishment 
of the Drug Control Agency (DCA) was established on June 1, 1999 
in accordance with an agreement signed by the Government of 
Tajikistan and the UN Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC).  Over 
the past decade, the DCA alone and in cooperation with other law 
enforcement authorities of the CIS states and Afghanistan seized 
about 20,000 kilograms of narcotics, including more than 9,000 
kilograms seized inside Tajikistan.  The Drug Control Agency 
detected 1,405 drug-related crimes and broke up 240 drug rings 
during this period.  The Drug Control Agency opened 824 criminal 
cases against 1,223 persons to courts and destroyed more than 
10,000 kilograms of narcotics, including, 3, 900 kilograms of 
heroin over the past decade. 
 
 
 
PERSONNEL CHANGES 
 
 
 
¶13. (U) On June 4 President Rahmon by his decree relieved 
Sherkhon Salimzoda of his post of Director of the Agency for 
State Financial Control and Combating Corruption, and appointed 
him as a State Adviser to the President for Legal Matters and 
President's Representative to Parliament, replacing Zarif 
Alizoda.  President Rahmon recently appointed Zarif Alizoda the 
Human Rights Ombudsman of Tajikistan; appointed Rustam Mengliyev 
the First Deputy Justice Minister to the Deputy Head of 
President's Executive Office; appointed Mahmad Rahimov, Deputy 
of Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan's lower chamber of 
parliament) to Director of the National Center for Legislation 
under the President of Tajikistan; Fattoh Saidov, former chief 
of the Dushanbe police department, appointed to head of the 
Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption.  In 
the meantime, the Minister of Interior appointed Sherali Sabzov 
the chief of the Organized Crime Department to Chief of the 
Dushanbe Police Department. 
 
 
 
BORDER GUARD ACADEMY PROJECT LAUNCHED 
 
 
 
¶14. (U) On June 10 the Head of the Border Guards General Sherali 
Mirzo, U.S. Ambassador in Tajikistan Tracey Jacobson, and 
Turkish Ambassador in Tajikistan Mir Akif Ayhan, participated in 
the ground breaking ceremony of the Border Guards Training 
Academy in Dushanbe ($2.5 million).  This bilateral project by 
the Government of Republic of Tajikistan and INL is one of a 
series to assist the Tajik Border Guards to improve the 
educational facilities for border officers and support the 
security of Tajikistan.  The project will improve the study and 
dormitory facilities of cadets studying at the Academy.  The 
construction will be completed by February 2010.  The contractor 
for construction work is Bozdemir Insaat ve Mehendisilik Ltd., a 
Turkish firm selected through an international tender. 
 
 
 
OTHER 
 
 
 
¶15. (U) Ex-Minister of Internal Affairs Mamadnazar Solehov died 
in his house in Dushanbe on June 17 at around 8:00 p.m. 
Allegedly he shot himself.  President Rahmon relieved Mamadnazar 
Solehov of his post of Minister of Interior in January this 
year.  President Rahmon announced the sacking of Solehov at the 
annual session of the National Security Council in Dushanbe on 
January 29 and replaced him with Sugd province Police Chief 
Abdurahim Qahhorov.  Mamadnazar Solehov had been repeatedly 
summoned to the Prosecutor General's Office for questioning over 
cases related to abuse of office, deliberate hiding of crimes by 
some police officers, and the murder of the special police 
officer Oleg Zakharchenko in February 2008.  Mr. Solehov ignored 
the summons and did not appear.  On June 17 the Prosecutor 
 
DUSHANBE 00000900  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
General issued an arrest warrant for Mamadnazar Solehov, and he 
allegedly killed himself rather than be arrested. 
 
 
 
COMMENT 
 
 
 
¶16. (SBU) The intensity of drug trafficking and interdiction 
efforts continues and demands increased efforts and continued 
improvements in the capacity of Tajik border services to raise 
them to international standards.  We wait to see the impact of 
the summer counter-narcotics campaigns on annual seizure rates. 
QUAST