The spokesman declined to give the date of the operation, saying that the smuggling attempt had been foiled recently.

According to the spokesman, the Uzbek security officers discovered 10 cellophane bags with the narcotic drugs carefully hidden under the railway cars of a freight train in route from Tajikistan to Russia.

Most of the heroin and hashish coming into Russia originates in Afghanistan and is trafficked into the country through the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Most of the drugs are then sold in Russia’s largest cities, or shipped on to Europe.