DUSHANBE (Reuters) -- A woman from the Philippines has been detained in Tajikistan on suspicion of trying to smuggle heroin hidden in hundreds of buttons, the customs authority in the Central Asian country said.
The woman, carrying up to 3 kilograms of heroin stuffed into 758 buttons and stitched onto 33 bathrobes, was detained at Dushanbe airport, as she prepared to board a flight to Turkey, customs officer Bekhruz Saidaliyev said.
"Imagine how many hours it took drug traffickers to do that," he said.
Tajikistan lies on the main drug smuggling route to Western Europe from Afghanistan, which accounts for 90 percent of the world's supply of opium and its refined form, heroin.
The woman, carrying up to 3 kilograms of heroin stuffed into 758 buttons and stitched onto 33 bathrobes, was detained at Dushanbe airport, as she prepared to board a flight to Turkey, customs officer Bekhruz Saidaliyev said.
"Imagine how many hours it took drug traffickers to do that," he said.
Tajikistan lies on the main drug smuggling route to Western Europe from Afghanistan, which accounts for 90 percent of the world's supply of opium and its refined form, heroin.
