Six held in Uzbekistan as 11.1 kg hashish smuggled from Afghanistan is seized
Uzbek security officers in Surkhandarya region intercepted an Afghan consignment of 25.444 kg of opium and 11.086 kg of hashish, then watched it to Samarkand and arrested four people receiving it. Two Afghan nationals were arrested separately at Termez's international trade centre selling opium; all six were remanded in custody.
🇺🇿 Surkhandarya region, Uzbekistan; drugs received in Samarkand; two further arrests at the Termez International Trade Center · Uzbekistan
Uzbek officers intercepted a consignment of drugs smuggled from Afghanistan and
took it under control to the city of Samarkand, where they arrested four people
as they received it.[1][2]The four were two Uzbek citizens and two foreign
nationals.[3][4]In a separate operation at the International Trade Center in
Termez, two Afghan nationals were arrested as they tried to sell 1 kg76 g of
opium to an undercover buyer for 5,000 US dollars.[1]Six people were detained
across the two operations.[1]
The operation in Surkhandarya region, which borders Afghanistan, involved the
regional State Security Service and the regional police.[3]The smuggled
shipment held 25.444 kg of opium and 11.086 kg of hashish, the cannabis
component recorded here.[3][4]Investigators said the couriers carried drugs
across the border by swallowing sealed packets, a method the reports call a
“live container”.[5]The arrests at Samarkand followed a controlled delivery
of the drugs under police watch, rather than a stop at the border.[5]
Criminal cases were opened under article 246 part 2 on smuggling and article 273
part 5 on drug trafficking, and all the suspects were remanded in custody.[3]All six suspects were placed in pre-trial detention and the investigation was
continuing.[6][4]
The two men who received the consignment in Samarkand were local residents aged 36 and 28, and the two foreign couriers who handed it to them were aged 32 and 30.[2]The second operation at Termez was carried out by the State Security Service together with the border troops, the interior ministry and the customs authorities.[2]
Photos and video
Photo published with the report of the seizure, credited in the caption to the press service of Uzbekistan's Customs Committee.Photo details
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Source: UzDaily.uzPhoto of the seized drugs, credited to the State Security Service.Photo details
The reports give no separate date for the operations; 17 June 2026 is the date the State Security Service announced them, so the detention itself may have come days earlier.
No value was published for the hashish or the whole haul by an authority, so no value is recorded; one outlet's rough retail estimate of $500,000 to $1 million covers the whole consignment and is not used.
The reports do not say how much of the hashish came in by the swallowing method or where exactly in Surkhandarya the shipment crossed the border.
The two members arrested at Termez are described only as Afghans aged 70 and 24 in one account and 1955 and 2001 births in others; no charges or court dates have been reported for any of the six.
UzDaily's caption credits the photo to the Customs Committee press service, although the report names the security service and police as leading the operation.
The Repost account describes only the Samarkand receipt with four detainees and does not mention the separate Termez International Trade Center arrests that make up the reported six-person total.
Podrobno.uz puts the Samarkand consignment at 11.9 kg of hashish and 25.4 kg of opium, and the Termez sale at 1.8 kg of opium, while the accounts already cited in this report give 11.086 kg of hashish, 25.444 kg of opium and 1 kg 76 g of opium respectively; the report keeps the figures already recorded.
Podrobno.uz attributes the smuggling method to the Termez pair rather than stating it for the Samarkand couriers, as the accounts cited in the report do; the sources do not settle which group carried the drugs in this way.
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.
