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KGB says that it has smashed two drug trafficking rings

The Committee for State Security (KGB) has smashed two rings that trafficked drugs from the European Union to Belarus, Raman Dzyamentsyew, a deputy departmental chief at the KGB, told reporters in Minsk on August 28.

In the first operation, police caught a Lithuanian and a Belarusian national in possession of 4,000 Ecstasy pills, Mr. Dzyamentsyew said. In the second, KGB officers arrested three residents of Hrodna and a citizen of Poland.

The officer described Belarus' drug trends as difficult but manageable.

Marijuana and opium account for up to 85 percent of the country's illicit drug market, said Alyaksandr Hawrylaw, head of the interior ministry’s drug control and human trafficking prevention department.

The number of illicit drug laboratories smashed in Belarus increased from two in 2005 to seven this year, Mr. Hawrylaw said.

Belarusian police seized a total of 24.2 lbs. (11 kilograms) of narcotic drugs in the first half of 2008, including 1.5 lbs (700 grams) of cocaine, 2.2 lbs. (one kilogram) of amphetamines, 5,000 ecstasy pills, and about 6.6 lbs (three kilograms) of hashish, according to the interior ministry.