17 kg of heroin seized in west Siberia

Russian customs officers in the Omsk Region in west Siberia seized more than 17 kilograms of heroin at a checkpoint on the border with Kazakhstan, the Federal Customs Service said on Monday.

MOSCOW, November 9 (RIA Novosti) - Russian customs officers in the Omsk Region in west Siberia seized more than 17 kilograms of heroin at a checkpoint on the border with Kazakhstan, the Federal Customs Service said on Monday.

The drugs were seized last weekend from a cache in a GAZ car driven by a Kazakh national, who now faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.

Heroin being smuggled to or through Russia mainly comes from Afghanistan, where illegal drug production has reportedly increased more than 40 times since U.S. forces toppled the radical Islamic Taliban movement in 2001.