US and UNODC work together to provide anti-narcotics training to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan border officers

05/22/2012

Uzbek Border Guard demonstrating how to use the K910B Buster Density Meter. (Photo courtesy of Richard Scheffing)

Working together, the U.S. Embassy Tashkent and the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) conducted training courses for Uzbekistan and Tajikistan officers from  Customs, Border Guards, Drug Control Agency/National Drug Control Centre and the Ministry of the Interior of the Republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The May 7 to May 11 training courses focused on four border crossing points along the Uzbek-Tajik border, including Oybek-Fotehobod and Soriosiyo-Dusti. 

The courses were conducted in the framework of the UNODC regional project, “Countering the trafficking of Afghan opiates via the northern route by enhancing the capacity of key border crossing points (BCPs) and through the establishment of Border Liaison Offices (BLOs).”

In order to increase the capacity of the border crossing points, the UNODC gave the customs units CT-30 contraband detection kits. The training courses were held in collaboration with the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) Office of the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent. An EXBS trainer from the United States taught a total of 45 officers how to use the search kits through both theoretical and practical training. The trainees stated that this course improved their skills on how to search vehicles at land borders.

In addition, under this program, four more sets of CT-30 kits will given to the border guards of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan