Tajik national-security officers and Border Troops personnel stopped a drug-trafficking case in the service zone of the 9th Panjob border outpost in Panjob jamoat, Mir Said Ali Hamadoni district, Khatlon Region.[1] They detained Tajik citizen Zarifov Sharofuddin Karimovich, born in 1969 and living in Panjob village, as a member of a transnational drug group.[1] Tajik law-enforcement officers also reported the detention as a major attempt to smuggle more than 90 kilograms of banned substances from Afghanistan, carried out with armed accomplices.[2]
A search of his Opel car with registration plate 2794 VS 03 TJ found four blue packets holding drugs in 90 packs and one plastic container in the boot.[1] Zarifov told investigators he stayed in contact through an Afghan mobile-network SIM card with Afghan citizen Khol, aged 45 to 50, a member of the transnational group.[1] Under their arrangement, Khol and seven armed group members carried the drugs across the state border into Tajikistan.[1] In the Panjob border zone, Khol met Zarifov and handed him the drugs, then returned to Afghanistan with his accomplices.[1] Zarifov planned to hide the drugs in a secret place, but security officers and border guards detained him.[1]
Forensic examination put the haul at 79.722 kg of hashish, 9.860 kg of opium and 975 g of methamphetamine, with a total weight of 90.557 kg.[1] Investigators opened a criminal case under several articles of the Criminal Code, and a preliminary investigation was under way.[1] A second account said a criminal case had been opened against the suspect and an investigation was under way.[2]
