Authorities in Uzbekistan have incinerated nearly a half ton of confiscated Afghan heroin worth an estimated street value of $150 million in Europe.
Officials say more than 700 kilograms of illegal drugs, including 497 kilograms of heroin, were burned on August 26 in the smelting furnace of a Soviet-era metals factory outside of Tashkent before an audience of diplomats and journalists.
Olimjon Turakulov, a spokesman for Uzbekistan's SNB domestic security services, said the drugs being destroyed had already been used as evidence in trials against drugs traffickers.
He said the incinerated drugs represent just part of about 2.5 tons of drugs seized from smugglers coming out of Afghanistan since the start of 2010.
compiled from angency reports