Two drug traffickers were killed during a clash between Tajikistan forces and a drug trafficking network at the shared border with Afghanistan.
Tajik media reported on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, that the country’s security forces engaged with a drug trafficking network and seized 58 kilograms of illegal drugs.
According to the Public Relations Center of Tajikistan’s National Security Committee, the confrontation occurred when a transnational group consisting of four Afghan traffickers illegally crossed the Tajikistan state border in the Shamsiddin Shohin region. After ignoring orders to surrender, the traffickers opened fire with weapons, resulting in the death of the group’s leader and one of its members during the exchange of gunfire.
The leader of the group has been identified as Azarkhan from Khoahan in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province.
Two Kalashnikov rifles, a night vision device, a rubber boat, and three bags containing drugs including 57.5 kilograms of opium and 960 grams of methamphetamine were seized at the scene.
The two remaining members of the group managed to escape back to Afghanistan. Tajik authorities have expressed ongoing concerns about security threats and drug trafficking from Afghanistan.
