As part of the operation, permanent and mobile checkpoints were set up on roads of the country to block channels for smuggling drugs. According to rapid search data, it was established that one of the main channels for smuggling drugs from Afghanistan was through the territory of Darvoz, Tavildara, Rasht and Jirgatol districts to Kyrgyzstan.

Officers from the Drug Control Agency under the Tajik president, the Tajik Interior Ministry, the Defence Ministry and the State Committee on National Security conducted a joint operation in this region to prevent and suppress the channel. It should be noted that a channel for smuggling drugs was led by an active member of the international terrorist organization Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Nemat Sadulloyevich Azizov. Funds gained from drug trafficking were then used to finance and support terrorist groups.

Members of Nemat Azizov and Mirzo Ziyo’s group took hostage three servicemen in the village of Chorsun-i Bolo of Saghirdasht Jamoat in Darvoz District on 11 May 2009.

Officers from the Interior Ministry and the Defence Ministry, while checking highlands of the area of Chorsun in Darvoz District, came under a sudden attack by an armed gang and as a result, a serviceman of military unit 23442 of the Defence Ministry, Sr-Lt Abribat Amonuddinovich Alishoyev, was killed. It was established that the criminal group comprised Mirzo Ziyo, Nemat Sadulloyevich Azizov and Hikmatullo Fayzulloyevich Azizov who is known by the nickname "Kuri Malysh" ["Smoke Baby"].

It was established that the group also comprised five Russian citizens, ethnic Chechens, temporarily residing in the city of Dushanbe, and who came to Tajikistan to send huge amounts of funds generated from the sale of drugs to terrorist organizations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

During rapid search operations, these citizens were detained by officers from the Tajik State Committee on National Security.

On 8 June 2009, at about 1830, a group of criminals organized an armed attack with the aim of seizing the administrative centre of Tavildara District. As a result of the skirmish, four members of Mirzo Ziyo and Nemat Azizov’s group were killed. After the skirmish, possible ways of the criminal group’s retreat and escape were controlled and observed and part of members of the armed group were surrounded. Then they were forced to lay down their weapons and surrender to the law-enforcement officers. A large number of assault rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, grenades and other weapons were seized from them. Mirzo Ziyo with his son and Hikmatullo Fayzulloyevich Azizov, head of the emergencies service of Tavildara District, were arrested at one of the checkpoints during rapid search operations in the morning of 11 July this year. The same day, Mirzo Ziyo voluntarily agreed to show places for the storage of weapons and organize talks with the remaining members of Nemat Azizov’s criminal group to turn them in. During the operation, the officers from the Tajik State Committee on National Security and law-enforcement agencies were suddenly attacked in a place called Safedkhok in Tavildara District by Nemat Azizov’s armed group. As a result, Mirzo Ziyo was killed and several officers of the State Committee on National Security were injured.

In all, during the Poppy-2009 joint operation, 121 crimes were revealed throughout the country. A total of 950 kg of drugs was seized, and 300 bushes of hemp were destroyed. Based on the above cases, 124 people, including seven Afghan citizens were brought to criminal charges. People of the region live and work in peaceful conditions and are involved in everyday problems. Local population assists and cooperates with police officers. Law-enforcement agencies are continuing rapid search operations as part of the Poppy-2009 operation. Additional information will be provided about the course of the investigation into the criminal group’s activities.