On April 8, authorities at the "Ayritom" border crossing—the primary gateway between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan—seized 190.8 kg of hashish. The contraband was found concealed within double-walled Afghan kazans (traditional cast-iron cauldrons) transported by truck, according to the State Security Service (DXX) press office.
The shipment consisted of 750 kazans packed in crates, totaling 4.1 tons. Dispatched directly from the manufacturer, the cargo was officially destined for a company in a neighboring Central Asian country; the Customs Committee later clarified that the intended final destination was Kazakhstan.
After the shipment flagged suspicious anomalies during a routine X-ray scan, the crates were diverted to the "Termez" foreign economic activity customs warehouse for a secondary, more rigorous inspection.
The search revealed that 210 of the kazans had been modified with double-walled interiors to house a hidden substance. Border guards and customs officers were forced to cut through the heavy iron to reach the hollow chambers, where they discovered the concealed hashish.
Initial estimates place the black-market value of the seized narcotics at over $5 million.
This operation adds to a significant streak for regional law enforcement; since the start of the year, customs officials have intercepted approximately 780 kg of drugs across more than 240 individual smuggling attempts.
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