Drug Trade Earns $10Bln per Year, Top Official Says

Illicit trade in drugs in Russia fetches up to $10 billion per year -- nearly the equivalent of one-tenth of government budget revenues -- a senior drugs control officer said Thursday. Oleg Kharichkin, deputy head of the Federal Anti-Drug Service, said much of the drugs trade was taken up by opiates although the share of synthetic drugs such as amphetamines was growing, particularly among young users. "Our preliminary figures for the size of the drugs business is about $8 billion to $10 billion this year," he told reporters. The federal budget is expecting revenues of 3.1 trillion rubles ($106.9 billion) next year. Kharichkin said there were about 500,000 drug users in the country. Russia is also a key transit route for opiate trafficking from Afghanistan to Western Europe, and foreign governments are anxiously watching the country's drugs agency -- founded a year ago -- to see if it can curb the trans-shipments. In the first five months of the year, Kharichkin said, the Federal Anti-Drug Service had seized about 900 kilograms of heroin. The total haul this year looks certain to surpass the previous record of about 950 kilograms of heroin seized in 2000.