UZBEKISTAN BURNS 1,435 KG OF NARCOTICS IN CEREMONY

UNCLAS TASHKENT 000743 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/CEN, INL FOR ANDREW BUHLER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR KCRM UZ SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN BURNS 1,435 KG OF NARCOTICS IN CEREMONY ¶1. (SBU) During a June 26 ceremony at a facility in Tashkent, Uzbekistan's National Security Service (NSS) burned 1,435 kg of narcotics while representatives from the United States, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Czech, Turkish, and French Embassies, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, and local and international press watched. (Note: According to an Embassy LES, this ceremony takes place every year on June ¶26. End note.) A convoy of Government of Uzbekistan (GOU) vehicles including two trucks laden with the narcotics drove up to the "UzVtorCvetMet," or Uzbekistan Recycling Nonferrous Metal Company, accompanied by armed NSS officers. As members of the diplomatic community and the press crowded around, NSS officers unloaded sacks of drugs into a large container attached to a crane. GOU representatives sliced open the bags to reveal heroin, opium, and marijuana to observers. The crane then deposited the sacks into the warehouse's ovens until the contents of both trucks had been destroyed. ¶2. (SBU) The NSS Press Center provided attendees with a press release indicating that the narcotics load consisted of 492 kg of heroin, 822 kg of opium, 133.5 kg of marijuana, and 6 kg of hashish, poppy straw, tablets and ampoules with psychotropic substances. All of the drugs had been confiscated in 2007-2008 and had been used as material evidence during criminal proceedings. The press release cited information from Uzbekistan's State Commission for Drug Control, indicating that Uzbekistan's law enforcement bodies had seized a total of 2,113.7 kg of narcotics--including 730.9 kg of opium, 680.8 kg of marijuana, and 479.9 kg of heroin--in 2007. It also noted that Uzbekistan has destroyed 40,500 kg of narcotics since 1994. NORLAND