Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Kyrgyzstan has become one of the first countries in Central Asia to successfully use drones to combat drug trafficking.

This was made possible thanks to Russian funding for a project by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) aimed at introducing new technologies into this fight. The total project budget was US$1.8 million.

The department for working with unmanned aerial vehicles was created within the structure of the Kyrgyzstan Anti-Drug Service at the end of 2022.

Since then, 19 drug crimes have been solved using drones, and 205 kg of narcotic substances have been seized.

Over the past three years, the department has identified 116 drug crimes, seizing 1 ton 823.5 kg of narcotic drugs from illicit trafficking, including 258 kg of synthetic drugs.