Your trusted source

Azerbaijan National Office against drugs propaganda, acting within the framework of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), published a booklet entitled "Drug trafficking in Nagorno-Karabakh." However, according to the Azerbaijani news agency "Turan", the data given there have no references to any sources.

"Referring to unofficial data, the authors write that the produced high quality drugs by the Nagorno-Karabakh Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia route, as well as NK-Iran-Azerbaijan-Europe and Armenia-Georgia-Black Sea-Europe routes are exported to European and Russian markets. By the same time, there are no references to the sources of information," the agency says.

According to "Turan", the brochure states that before Nagorno Karabah was a drug transit area, and today "according to some sources, drugs are grown and manufactured in special laboratories there."

Responding to agency’s question about providing documentary evidence and facts, the head of the National Anti-Drug Propaganda Public Association Mazahir Efendiyev said that "all these facts need to be checked."

The U.S. State Department report on the control of drug trafficking was noted that Azerbaijan is a transit country for drugs from Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia to Russia and Europe. The report also said that the number of addicts has increased in Azerbaijan. Heroin is the most popular drug in Azerbaijan, besides narcotic plants grow there.

In September 2010, the Deputy Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan Rustam Usubov stated that about 35% of the drugs illegally produced in Afghanistan are carried through Azerbaijan.

According to a UN report, of "Northern Balkan Route" drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Europe lies precisely through Azerbaijan. Drugs freely cross Azerbaijan-Turkey-Iran route. The second, "Old Balkan Route" lies straight through Iran to Turkey.

People engaged in the smuggling are mainly assisted by the Azerbaijani and Kurdish population of northern Iran. The third way is through Azerbaijan and the Caucasus which lies through the Turkmen seaport after Turkmenbashi, in Baku. Here the drugs are easily smuggled into Russia. Moreover, the telegram to former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse, which was published by the WikiLeaks, read that the drug mafia in Russia is largely controlled by ethnic Azerbaijanis. Armenia, at the same time, is not specified as a drugs transit country.