Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.3 / Trend , K.Zerbaliyeva /
Azerbaijani law enforcement bodies have registered about 3260 drug-related cases in 2009.
About 2.5 tons of various drugs have been seized, Araz Aliguliyev, State Commission head of working group on combating drug addiction and illicit drug trafficking, told Trend .
There are 1238 drug-sale related crimes.
According to Aliguliyev, the number of crimes registered in 2009 is 374 cases more compared to 2008, and more than 400 kilograms have been seized from drug trafficking.
About 2641 people have been charged, five of whom are under 18.
More than 2077 people have been charged with such crime for the first time.
In 2009, about 98 foreigners have been charged with drug-related crimes, and about 237 kilograms of drugs have been seized from them. Most of the miscreants are Iranian, Russian, Georgian and Nigerian citizens.
According to Aliguliyev, 2797 of the 5422 convicted, are in jail.
Treating drug users as criminals is not true, Aliguliyev said.
He said that the measures conducted in this sphere aim at reducing crime rate.
According to official information, over 23,000 drug addicts are registered in the country but Aliguliyev said that this figure doesn't reflect the real situation.
Twenty three percent of drugs coming from Afghanistan are transported through Azerbaijani, he said.