Estonia, Russia plan to tackle drug smuggling

  • 2013-11-08
  • From wire reports, TALLINN

Plans to launch an Estonian-Russian anti-drugs task force have been revealed.

Estonian Interior Minister, Ken-Marti Vaher met with Viktor Ivanov, the director of the Russian Federation's Federal Drug Control Service on Nov. 7 to discuss plansm, reports ERR.

 "We clarified our respective countries' drug problems and current situation both regarding the area of circulation of specific substances, as well as the discovery of the possible production locations and trafficking routes of the synthetic drugs causing the most deaths," said Vaher. 

In recent years Estonia has served as a transit zone for smuggling drugs into Europe. The country has seen a sharp rise in the use of deadly synthetic drugs, largely coming from Russia.

In 2012, fentanyl was the cause of 80 percent of drug-related deaths in Estonia.

During his two-day meeting, Ivanov also met with officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Tax and Customs Board and the Estonian Forensic Science Institute. He also met with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Estonia.