The region's authorities have recently demonstrated particular concern over the spread of illegal narcotics trade in the Moscow wider metropolitan area.

According to the regional criminal investigations department, the daily turnover of heroin in the Moscow region approximates 100 kilos. In the first quarter of 2007, over two thousand drug-related crimes were uncovered in the region, the police said.

However, police sources are stressing that however dire the situation may seem, positive dynamics show as well. Thus, the number of solved crimes in the first quarter of this year has increased from 292 to 571, with 312 criminal cases launched, which is 33 percent higher than in the first quarter of last year. Over 90 kilos of illegal narcotics were seized, most of them heavy drugs.