TAJIKISTAN: NARCOTICS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND JUSTICE SECTOR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 001318 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN (HUSHEK) STATE FOR INL/AAE (BUHLER) JUSTICE FOR (DUCOT AND NEWCOMBE) DEFENSE FOR OSP/P E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR KCRM KJUS PGOV PREL RF TI SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: NARCOTICS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND JUSTICE SECTOR JULY - SEPTEMBER UPDATE REF: Dushanbe 1316 ¶1. (U) Summary: The Ambassador and Foreign Minister signed letters of agreement to provide over $13 million in additional INL border security, police, anti-crime, and justice sector assistance to Tajikistan. This status report and reftel cover these and prior projects. Tajikistan's Drug Control Agency worked with Afghanistan and other neighboring countries, improved drug interdiction and resulted in the seizure of 2,754 kilos of drugs during the first nine months of 2008, including 1,152 kilos seized by the Tajikistan Drug Control Agency alone, a 25.6% increase over last year. The Border Guards too have been active with multiple instances of hundreds kilo drug seizures. Since the beginning of 2008, in the Shurabad border area alone Border Guards had fifteen firefights with armed drug smugglers. Judges are handing down stiff sentences to convicted foreign drug traffickers. Working with anti-drug services from Russia and elsewhere, the Sugd Regional Counter-Narcotics Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs broke up three narco-trafficking rings. The Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption opened criminal cases against 122 state officials (more than half of them are law enforcement and security agencey officers) for abuse of office, bribery, and embezzlement of state funds. End summary. INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS ¶2. (U) On August 2, Ambassador Jacobson and Foreign Minister Zarifi signed two letters of agreement which provide more than $13 million to continue border security and police programs to enhance Tajikistan's security and to launch justice sector projects to improve rule of law and provide access to justice. ¶3. (U) With this assistance, the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement program provided more than $28 million in assistance to support Tajikistan's security, rule of law and counter narcotics efforts since 1992. Overall, the United States provides more than $40 million of assistance annually to Tajikistan. These funds contribute to Tajikistan's security, economic development, democratic freedom, and the health and education of Tajikistan's citizens. ¶4. (U) The Director of Tajikistan's Drug Control Agency (DCA), Rustam Nazarov, attended a meeting of the XXVI International Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC) in Istanbul, Turkey July 8-10. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration-organized conference brought together more than 300 high-level law enforcement officials from 93 countries throughout the world. Conference participants focused on pharmaceutical abuse, the nexus of drugs and terrorism, money laundering, and intelligence sharing across multi-national law enforcement agencies. General Nazarov reported on the drug situation in Tajikistan and drug control measures being taken in Central Asia. ¶5. (U) On August 11 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime sponsored a two-week training course to improve the skills of 15 Afghan police, customs, and border service officers to fight against drug trafficking. Officers from the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Drug Control Agency jointly conducted the training. MUTUAL COOPERATION QMUTUAL COOPERATION ¶6. (U) On July 9, the Drug Control Agency Deputy Director Vaisiddin Azamatov held joint meetings with the Afghan Minister of Interior, Zarar Ahmad Moqbil. The officers discussed cooperation and expansion of joint efforts to fight drug trafficking. Azamatov briefed the Afghan minister on the drug situation in Tajikistan and measures taken by the Tajik government to improve the efficiency of the law enforcement agencies to fight drug trafficking. NARCOTICS AND WEAPONS SEIZURES ¶7. (U) During the first nine months of 2008, the Drug Control Agency and other law enforcement and security services seized 2,754 kilos of drugs. DCA officers single-handedly seized over 1,152 kilos of drugs, a 25.6% increase over the comparable period of 2007, according to the Analytical Information Department of the counternarcotics agency. Drug control agency officers carried out DUSHANBE 00001318 002 OF 003 15 joint operations with the other Tajik counternarcotics agencies seizing an additional 233 kilos. The DCA carried out 37 joint operations with Afghan and Kazakh law enforcement services and seized an additional 1,369 kilos of drugs, including 444 kilograms of heroin. ¶8. (U) On July 16, Tajik law enforcement officials seized 36 kilos of raw opium and 114 grams of hashish in the Vahdat district located 17 kilometers east of Dushanbe. Ministry of Internal Affairs Counter-Narcotics Department officers arrested a resident of Khatlon's Muminabad district and initiated criminal proceedings against him. ¶9. (U) The Committee for National Security reports that officers seized nearly 100 kilos of drugs in Hamadoni district. On July 14, border guards on routine patrol tried to detain a group of Afghan drug traffickers who were illegally crossing the Tajik-Afghan border river in Khatlon's Khamadoni district. Border guards fired on the traffickers who fled back to Afghanistan. Five sacks containing 98 kilograms of narcotics, including 10 kilograms of heroin, 52 kilograms of raw opium, and 36 kilograms of cannabis were found at the scene. ¶10. (U) On August 7, also in the Khatlon area, Border Guards detained a Tajik national at the Afghan border in Shurabad district and confiscated more than 140 kilograms of hashish and five kilograms of heroin as well as a Kalashnikov machine-gun. Authorities opened criminal proceedings against the drug trafficker and an investigation is under way. ¶11. (U) On September 16 and 23 in the Yol area of the Tajik-Afghan border the Border Guards seized 252 kilograms of narcotics including 30 kilos of heroin and 222 kilos of hashish. According to press reports, several traffickers and two border guards were killed in the skirmishes but the Border Guards will not confirm this information. ¶12. (U) This year the Border Guards have had fifteen firefights with armed drug smugglers in the Shurabad border area alone. The Border Guards and security officers on this stretch of the border seized 452 kilograms of drugs, including 40 kilograms of heroin since the beginning of the year. ¶13. (U) During the course of an investigation of an earlier arrest of a Tajik drug smuggler which netted 5.2 kilos of drugs, the smuggler provided information about an additional 14 kilos of heroin which DCA officers seized in the Khatlon area. The smuggler claimed the drug belonged to an Afghan smuggler. DCA officers continue to investigate. ¶14. (U) According to the Customs Service, they discover about two kilos of heroin hidden in dried apricots during passenger inspection at the Dushanbe airport prior to a flight to Samarra, Russia on September 10. The drugs reportedly belong to Bakhtiyor Junaydov, a resident of GBAO's Roshtqala district. Authorities are pressing charges against Junaydov under Article 200 (illicit drug trafficking); Article 32 (criminal attempt); and Article 289 (contraband) of Tajikistan's Criminal Code. CONVICTIONS ¶15. (U) On September 14 Saddriddin Toshev, a judge from the Shohmansur area of Dushanbe, sentenced three foreign nationals for drug trafficking. The court sentenced Ms. Garcia Joanna Gardovski, Qdrug trafficking. The court sentenced Ms. Garcia Joanna Gardovski, a Philippine national, to 13 years in prison for attempted transport of three kilograms of heroin to Istanbul. The court also sentenced Makkongza Azvidin Flora, a South African national, to 15 years in prison. Inspectors found six kilograms of heroin in his luggage. Tajik law enforcement officers traced the drugs to Khonzoda valadi Butkhoja, the Afghan national main supplier. The court sentenced him to 16 years in prison. DRUG-TRAFFICKING GROUPS ¶16. (U) Since the beginning of this year, the Sugd Ministry of Internal Affairs counternarcotics directorate (northern Tajikistan) broke up three groups of narco-traffickers and solved 16 DUSHANBE 00001318 003 OF 003 drug-related crimes. During the reporting period, the Counter-Narcotics Directorate seized over 332 kilograms of narcotics, including 129 kilograms of heroin. During the January - June period, authorities in the Russian Federation detained 11 residents of the Sugd province for drug smuggling including four from Mastchoh, three from Spitamen, two from Jabbor Rasulov and one from Pendjikent. Law enforcement agencies conducted a large-scale anti-drug operation, dubbed Poppy-2008, involving officers from the counternarcotics directorate and other law enforcement agencies of the Sugd region. REWARDS FOR FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS ¶17. (U) The President of Tajikistan bestowed awards on three Drug Control Agency officers for exemplary service combating drug trafficking. The President presented the "Spitamen Level II" award to senior investigator Mirnemat Dodometov; the "Khizmati Shoista" award to Saidjon Nehmonov, the head of Investigation Department of DCA; and presented a Certificate of Merit to Murodqul Hazratkulov, the head of Administration Department at DCA. Since the establishment of the Drug Control Agency 21 members have received awards. CORRUPTION ¶18. (U) Officers of the Khatlon Anti-Corruption Department discovered serious financial violations in the Pyandj Production Cooperative "Zohiriyo". A spokesperson for the Anti-Corruption Agency said that Jalol Zoidov, director of "Zohiriyon" concealed income and had not paid 348,876 somonies in taxes (equivalent to more than $100,000). The Khatlon Anti-Corruption Department began criminal proceedings against Zoidov under the provisions of Article 291 of Tajikistan's Criminal Code - tax evasion. ¶19. (U) During the first six months of this year the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption reports it opened criminal cases against 122 state officials. The officials face charges of abuse of office, bribery, and embezzlement of state funds. Anti- corruption Agency officials began more than half of the criminal proceedings against officers from the law enforcement agencies and security services including 34 against police officers, six against tax officers, five against customs officers, nine against officers from the Ministry of Defense, two against border officers, six against officials with the Ministry of Justice, and three against judges. ¶20. (U) As an example, the spokesperson outlined the case against Rahmon Sharipov, chief of the police directorate in Khatlon's Rumi district. The spokesman said "Sharipov faces charges of abuse of office and bribery. The investigation has established 34 instances of bribe-taking for 10,000 somonies and $12,000. Officers also found more than 5,000 somonies and $41,000 as well as several unregistered criminal cases in his house." In all, the Anti-Corruption Agency detected 504 corruption-related crimes over the report period of which public servants committed 122. INL PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION ¶21. (U) During the reporting period, INL Dushanbe continued to implement projects in border security, policing, and the with ABA/ROLI in the justice sector. Upon signing of ALOA 7 and 8 INL began implementation of new projects in eastern Tajikistan's as well Qbegan implementation of new projects in eastern Tajikistan's as well as in the justice sector, anti-TIP, and demand reduction sectors. Full report reftel. JACOBSON