60 kg marijuana seized on Afghan border; 4 detained near Kelif
Turkmen border and security forces seized 60 kg of marijuana from two Afghan Turkmen smugglers crossing by boat near Kelif on 21 April 2023. Two Kelif residents said to be the intended recipients were later detained for questioning about a distribution network.
🇹🇲 Kelif village, Koytendag etrap, Lebap velayat · Turkmenistan
The detainees were taken to the MNB department in Kerki, where after questioning
they gave information about two people for whom the load was intended.[1]Two
Kelif residents born in 1968 and 1975 were later detained and questioned to
identify a distribution network on the Turkmen side.[1]
Turkmen special services had learned of the planned drug shipment on 19 April
and prepared a detention operation.[1]At 3 a.m. the smugglers crossed the
river by boat between Shortepa district in Balkh region of Afghanistan and Kelif
village in Koytendag etrap of Lebap velayat.[1]Servicemen of the Kerki border
detachment and officers of an MNB special unit waited for them on motorboats at
the Turkmen bank.[1]After the officers switched on searchlights and ordered
the men to raise their hands, the smugglers jumped into the water and tried to
swim away but were detained.[1]Operational information indicated there should
have been three smugglers, with one account saying the third stayed on the
Afghan bank and another saying he escaped.[1]
The report places the crossing at Kelif village in Koytendag etrap of Lebap
velayat.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The article gives 21 April as the interception date and 2 May 2023 as its publication date; no separate date is given for the later detention of the two Kelif residents.
The fate of the suspected third smuggler is unresolved, with one version saying he stayed on the Afghan bank and another saying he escaped.
The names of the four detained people, any charges, and any court outcome were not reported.
Only one accessible source for this event was found after searching in English and Russian.
The page's first picture is explicitly marked as an illustrative photo and does not show this seizure.
The same article mentions a separate 31 March seizure of 159 kg of anasha from a Turkmenistan-origin truck by Uzbek customs, which is a different event left out here.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Хроника Туркменистана: Two Afghan citizens of ethnic Turkmen origin were detained on the Turkmen-Afghan border on 21 April with 60 kilograms of marijuana, described as anasha.
Russian police in Zabaykalsky Krai arrested a 40-year-old Turkmen citizen who had been wanted since 2025 and extradited him to Turkmenistan in October 2026. Turkmen authorities charged him under article 327(2) with acquiring more than 100 grams of opium for sale as part of a group, an offence carrying up to 20 years.
Uzbek customs found 13 kg of heroin in a truck carrying dried apricots from Afghanistan to Russia at the Olot border post on 30 May 2026. The truck had crossed Turkmenistan, and Turkmen customs had not found the drugs on either entry or exit. The case was reported by Hronika on 4 June and highlighted the gap in Turkmen border checks.
Border guards on the Afghan frontier in Mary region found 15 kg of heroin hidden in a shepherd's animal feed during a search on 13 March 2025. The shepherd said he was to move the drugs to Ahal and Dashoguz regions and refused to name his accomplices. The case was reported on 27 March; it involved heroin, not cannabis, and showed the border service's role in interdicting Afghan opiates.
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow opened a drug-disposal complex 100 km north of Ashgabat on 2 December 2020. More than 122.5 kg of narcotics seized by the Interior Ministry were burned in its furnaces. The government presented the facility as a sign of its commitment to drug control; it did not say which drugs made up the total.