Good news for opium poppy farmers in Central Asia. Their crop may be more valuable as a heating fuel than as an illegal narcotic.
HIGH TEMPERATURES: SIBERIAN VILLAGE’S HOMES ARE KEPT WARM FOR 24 HOURS BY HEROIN BURNED IN LOCAL FURNACE AFTER NARCOTICS RAID
Three tons of poppy seeds, one kilogram of heroin and 300 grams of synthetic drug burned at central heating plant which then pumped hot water to homes
By Tara Brady
Mail Online
December 17, 2013
Homes in a remote Siberian village were kept warm for 24 hours by burning drugs including heroin seized during a narcotics raid.
Three tons of poppy seeds mixed with straw were destroyed in the furnace of the heating system of Yagunovo village, near Kemerovo.
More than one kilogram of heroin and 300 grams of synthetic drugs also went up in flames.
The experiment was so successful that authorities plan to repeat it at other locations.
The drugs were burned under the supervision of a board of experts from Kemerovo regional drug control service and Kemerovo regional health department service, an official said.
Like many Siberian communities, Yagunovo is warmed by central heating plants which pump hot water to homes and businesses.
The hot water then heats the various rooms in people's homes through pipes and radiators.
At the time the narcotics were burned, night time temperatures dipped to minus 14C.
'The amount burned in the boiler room was enough to keep all houses in the village warm for 24 hours,' said the local authority.
Much of the haul was seized from an unnamed Kazakhstan citizen, aged 34, who brought them to Siberia.
The man was later sentenced to more than 13 years in jail.
In all, illegal narcotics relating to 27 separate offences were destroyed in the village furnace which heats a dozen two-storey blocks of flats, a dormitory, a school, a library, a bank, and a House of Arts.
Kemerovo is one of a number of Siberian regions prone to illegal imports of drugs from Central Asia, some of which find their way west to Europe.
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