612 kg of hashish found in broom handles at Uzbekistan's Ayritom border
Uzbek customs and border troops found 612 kg of hashish hidden in the handles of 2,986 brooms on a truck transiting from Afghanistan at the Ayritom post on 9 February 2025. Customs put the Afghan consignment's black-market value at more than $16.5 million and began a pre-investigation check.
🇺🇿 Ayritom border customs post, Surkhandarya region, Uzbekistan
On 9 February 2025, officers checked a truck transiting through Uzbekistan at
the Ayritom customs post on the Afghan border.[1][2][3]The operation in
Surkhandarya region was a joint effort by the Customs Committee and the State
Security Service, reported by customs press secretary Husan Tangriyev.[1][2]The
truck carried 22,500 household brooms made of broomcorn packed in 180 sacks.[1][3][4]Officers moved the truck to the Termez customs warehouse adjoining the
Ayritom post for a full customs inspection.[5][2]
Hidden inside the handles of 2,986 brooms were plastic-wrapped packages about 25
cm long, bound in yellow tape matching the brooms’ colour.[1][3][4]When opened
before witnesses, each package held on average 200 grams of a dark-brown
substance with a strong smell.[1][3]A rapid test showed the substance was
hashish.[1][4]The hashish weighed 612 kg in total, which customs preliminarily
valued at more than $16.5 million on the black market.[1][2][3]
The consignment had been brought from Afghanistan for transit through
Uzbekistan.[6]Customs said a pre-investigation check was continuing, and the
sources name no detained suspect.[1][2]
Photos and video
Customs-service photo republished with the BelTA report on the broom-handle hashish seizure. Photo: Customs service of UzbekistanPhoto details
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Source: Белорусское телеграфное агентство (БелТА)Customs Committee photo of the 612 kg hashish seizure at the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan border. Photo: Customs CommitteePhoto details
No arrest, detention or charge was reported; customs said only that a pre-investigation check was continuing.
The incident date of 9 February 2025 comes from the Uzbek accounts, while BelTA's article is dated 10 February 2025 and rounds the weight to more than 600 kg.
The value of more than $16.5 million is a preliminary customs black-market estimate, not a court or expert valuation.
The sources do not identify the truck's owner or driver, the onward destination after transit, or what became of the consignment after seizure.
Сурхондарёда супургилар дастагига яширилган 612 кг. "гашиш" гиёҳвандлик воситасини олиб киришга уриниш фош қилинди! (Husan Tangriyev, press secretary of the Customs Committee, on Telegram) could not be opened again to check its quotations (the browser-rendered page has almost no readable article text (it may require a login, show an access challenge, or contain only media); archived fallback unavailable (the browser-rendered page has almost no readable article text (it may require a login, show an access challenge, or contain only media)). No AI research was started); what it says is as the AI read it.
The Interfax article also briefly notes a separate 3-4 February operation in which over 112 kg of drugs were seized and 228 people detained, a different enforcement event left out of this report.
Customs, State Security Service and police officers found 2 kilograms 875 grams of marijuana buried beneath the foundation of a home in Shofirkon district, Bukhara region. Customs opened a criminal case, and investigators are still working to identify the drug's source and anyone else involved in supplying it.
Officers in Namangan region seized 70 grams of hashish from the driver of a Nexia during a joint police and security-service operation. A criminal case on illegal drug trafficking was opened and the investigation continues.
State Security Service and Tashkent police searched two containers on a leased farm plot in Qibray around 19 October 2026, seizing 7 kg of dry marijuana kept for sale plus an IZH-38 pneumatic weapon and three cartridges; the previously convicted keeper, born 1986, faces a pre-investigation check.
On the evening of 1 October 2026, Uzbek customs at the Ayritom border post found 98 packages hidden under the trailer floor of an empty truck arriving from Afghanistan: 79 held 42.335 kg of hashish and 19 held 10.26 kg of opium, worth about 340,000 doses combined. A joint customs, border, security and police case is underway.
