TAJIK border guards used a machine gun to shoot down a paraglider as he tried to fly a large consignment of heroin across the border from Afghanistan, the deputy head of the border service said Tuesday.

The pilot of the paraglider - a parachute-type device that can be used to glide over considerable distances - was not apprehended in the incident, which occurred 230 kilometres southeast of the capital, said the border guard's deputy head, Sabza Sarkorov.
However 18kg of heroin was seized, Sarkorov said.

"The pilot was most likely injured and hid himself in a mountain area on the Tajik border," Sarkorov told AFP. "An investigation is under way to determine the country of origin of the paraglider and the citizenship of its pilot."

This mountainous former Soviet republic is a major heroin and opium smuggling route from Afghanistan to Russia and western Europe.


Since the start of this year Tajik authorities have intercepted more than 800 kilogrammes of heroin that was being smuggled from Afghanistan, official statistics show.