Uzbekistan announced the seizure of a large drug shipment worth 70 million dollars on the border with Afghanistan. Uzbek customs said that smugglers had placed the drugs inside packs of pomegranate juice for export to Uzbekistan.
According to Uzbek media outlets, an 18-tonne shipment of pomegranate juice, containing 9,000 bottles, had been stopped at the port of Termez in Surxondaryo region, for a company registered in Uzbekistan.
During the inspection process, the Uzbek customs officers noticed the letter “M” on some of the bottles with a different colour from the rest of the shipment. When they cross-checked the shipment, they found out that the bottles contained methamphetamine.
Uzbek officials said that they found 103 kilogrammes of drugs in 48 bottles in the shipment.
Uzbekistan customs said that currently one gram of methamphetamine is worth about 700 dollars in the global market and the total cost of drugs imported and seized from Afghanistan is more than 70 million dollars.
