Uzbekistan Seizes 34kg of Smuggled Drugs in Tashkent Sting

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Uzbek security forces pulled more than 34 kilograms of opium and hashish from a single car near a Tashkent market, in one of the capital's larger street-level drug interceptions in recent memory.

TASHKENT — Officers from the State Security Service (SSS) and the Interior Ministry jointly intercepted a Chevrolet Lacetti near the Kuylyuk market in Tashkent, uncovering a plastic container holding 30 individually wrapped packages of narcotics, authorities announced June 12.

Forensic examination confirmed the total seizure weighed 34 kilograms and 610 grams — comprising 12 kg 960 g of opium and 21 kg 650 g of hashish. All packages were confiscated as material evidence. Investigators say the narcotics were smuggled into Uzbekistan from abroad.

The stop was conducted in strict compliance with procedural rules and in the presence of witnesses, authorities said.

Two men were arrested at the scene. The driver, a 1968-born resident of the Sariasiya district of Surkhandarya region, has a prior criminal conviction. His passenger, born in 1984 in the city of Denau and currently residing in Tashkent, was also detained.

The SSS Investigative Directorate has opened a criminal case against both suspects under Part 2 of Article 28, Article 246, and Part 5 of Article 25, Article 273 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan — provisions covering drug trafficking and related offenses. Both men have been remanded in custody.

Investigators are continuing their work and say they are actively pursuing other alleged members of the smuggling network.