PICTURES

STORY

START 10.00.00

10.00.14

Flying over Pamir Mountains

UPSOT MUSIC

10.00.14

10.00.20

10.00.32

Tajik border officer

10.00.38

Over river and bridge

This stretch of mountains is called the Pamir.   Among its peaks stands the third highest mountain in the world, and it forms a natural border between Tajikstan and its neighbour Afghanistan.  

Our tiny Russian-made plane barely scrapes over the mountain peaks as we head for the Afghan border.

Below us the mountains hide the start of the Silk Road, and hundreds of other less famous trails that today are not used for the transportation of silk, but for that of heroin.

Few westerners come here - you need special clearance and a Tajik security minder.

Since the fall of the Taleban heroin production has risen every year - and I'm here to investigate the evidence on Afghanistan's neighbours.

10.00.48

GVS OF TAJIKISTAN

10.01.06

DVD seizure

10.01.25

Border shots

Tajikistan is the poorest country in the former Soviet Union. The collapse of communism brought civil war in the 1990s and the breakdown of the economy. Unlike its Central Asian neighbours Tajikistan is not blessed with oil and gas reserves. But it does have Afghanistan next door.

In September 2002, the British Foreign Office announced plans to eliminate opium poppy cultivation and dismantle trafficking networks from Afghanistan. But the plan has failed. 5 years on, Afghan opium makes up 93% of the world's trade.

Nearly a quarter of drugs are smuggled through the porous border of Central Asia. From there it travels up to Russia and across Europe, all the way to the UK.

Tajik Drugs Control Agency

10.01.35

10.01.44

10.01.53

Storehouse with seizures of drugs 

10.01.58

10.02.06

And Tajikistan gets more than its share of the trade, one that the Tajik Drugs Control Agency struggles to contain.

PTC: We're being taken to the place where the Drugs Control Agency stores all the drugs they seize.

The Agency's storerooms have seen more than 20 tonnes of heroin

Then I was shown the prize exhibit. In this old Dell computer box there is 70 kg of heroin with a street value of 10M pounds.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Over 2 bln dollars worth of heroin were smuggled from Afghanistan last year alone.

General Nazarov I/V

10.02.16

Nazarov: Of course the amount coming out of Afghanistan has increased since the fall of the Taleban....

But no matter how much effort we put into fighting the trafficking and strengthening the border, the real problem is in Afghanistan. As long as the problem is not solved there, its neighbours are always going to struggle in fighting the trade.

Border guards DVD

10.02.34

And the odds aren't in the authorities' favour. Here are the border patrols arresting an alleged smuggler. But the border stretches for nearly 1000 miles, and many of the guards are poorly trained conscripts.

Guards on riverbank

10.02.47

Images of drugs seized etc.

10.03.00

10.03.06

10.03.24

But they are the frontline foot-soldiers. and they have international backing. Their uniforms are American, their dogs trained by the EU, at $5,000 a throw.

But the conscripts themselves only get 1 dollar per month. And the risks are high.

Border guard: Sometimes they send 80 to 100 kg over, five or six people carrying it in bags sitting on truck tires. When that happens they have 10 or 15 people standing on the other side of the river with machine guns, giving them covering fire.

And on average 10 soldiers die in shoot-outs with Afghan drugs traffickers every year.

Bridge

10.03.36

Traders searched. Market shots

10.03.45

River, barren border

10.03.54

10.04.04

PTC: This bridge connects Afghanistan with Tajikistan over a tiny little border. And all these people, the Afghans, are coming over to trade.

Whatever they try and do - the drugs will still get through. Traders may be checked on this bridge, but what about the rest of the border?

To see how easy it might be for traffickers, I drove 20 minutes up-river with Kurbon Alamshoev, a local journalist.

Korban by river: As you see, the border isn't difficult to get across. They usually make their arrangements, and then paddle across on lorry tires.

Poverty shots

10.04.11

10.04.19

And so Afghan heroin continues to get through and feed the entire world.

And in this already poor country, heroin ruins ever more people's lives.

10.04.24

Misha by house

Misha prepares syringe

10.04.42

Injects

10.04.52

10.05.02

Misha has been a heroin user for 13 years. He didn't want his face shown. His used to be a wealthy businessman, but he has lost everything. He told me that drugs started appearing here when Soviet soldiers smuggled them back from Afghanistan in the 80s.

Misha told me the dose he had bought costs only 10 somoni or just over a pound. 

Shahida: He says that he's not having any sensation when he injects himself. He just wants to kill the pain.

Misha: That's what I like about the Taleban. When they took over half of Afghanistan they destroyed the drugs trade. Heroin was harder to get here too. Then NATO went in and now there is as much as there was before. Even more, and better quality.

Khorog Detox centre

10.05.21

Cooking area

10.05.33

Nurse showing Shahida around

10.05.37

Khorog has just one place for drug users to kick the habit. Here, medicines are provided by relatives, staff are paid 2 pounds a month and the building is rented from the local veterinary service.

In the past year they have treated some 800 patients.

So far this year, 46 of their registered drugs users have died of overdoses. Over all of last year there were only 25.

Alisher, detox patient

10.05.47

10.05.54

10.06.04

Nurses struggle to find vein

10.06.26

Alisher has been an addict for 7 years. 10 of his friends and countless acquaintances have died from drugs.

Alisher's veins have shrunk so much that it can take the nurses hours every morning to attach his drip.

Shahida: Alisher is saying that he used to have really thick veins in his arms, and he used them all the time. Then they became thinner and thinner. Then he injected into his neck, and the last one, which was more or less useable, was the vein in the crotch, which they call the funeral vein.

Finally the nurses found the vein, and Alisher's detox treatment began.

Meal in detox centre

10.06.31

These local drug users are only the first in the legion of addicts that stretches from here to western Europe.

10.06.43

UNDP Country Manager, Suhrob Kaharov

10.06.48

Suhrob set-up

Suhrob I/V

Suhrob Kaharov runs the UN anti-drugs programme in Tajikistan.

Kaharov: The final destination of drugs is not Tajikistan, it's Europe. So that's why the European Community and the international community in general care about this. Because finally their kids, their neighbours, their families are effected because of these drugs.

Border shots / DVD shots

10.07.04

Tajikistan may be a remote country of which we know little. But the heroin trade is spiralling, thanks to the failures of the coalition in neighbouring Afghanistan. And the impact is being felt all the way to the streets of Britain.

END 10.07.17