Customs officers have foiled an attempt to set up a clandestine drug laboratory in the city of Gulistan, in Sirdarya province, the Customs Committee said.
Officers from the Tashkent-Aero specialized customs complex and the E-commerce foreign economic activity customs post inspected a courier parcel from China. Documents described the contents as colored food additives, but the inspection found a white, crystalline powder, the committee said.
The Central Customs Laboratory established that the parcel held about 25 kilograms of pregabalin, a potent substance.
Customs officers, working with the State Security Service and internal affairs bodies, then carried out investigative operations. The parcel had been sent through a Telegram account called “Altair” to two Gulistan residents, who were detained in Tashkent as they collected it, the committee said.
Searches of the suspects’ homes in Gulistan turned up 8,000 empty capsules, 300 handmade capsules, two electronic scales, five pairs of medical gloves and 5 kilograms of a substance resembling the narcotic mephedrone.
The suspects are men aged 20 and 21, according to the committee. It said they operated through an online shop called “SIMBIOZ” that sells narcotic substances. The operations also established that they had tried to set up a clandestine drug laboratory.
Customs authorities have opened a criminal case.
Earlier, authorities reported finding more than 1,300 potent medicines in Tashkent and Bukhara.
