Russia seizes 'wrongly labelled' UN methadone as contraband drugs

Russian customs authorities have seized a consignment of methadone bound for the UN's HIV prevention programme in Tajikistan as contraband drugs due to a labelling misunderstanding, the UNDP said on Wednesday.

The mix-up happened earlier this month when the cargo of methadone -- which is used worldwide in HIV prevention programmes around the world but is banned in Russia -- was seized at Moscow's Vnukovo airport while in transit from Germany.

Russia's customs service announced it had seized 5.8 billion rubles ($92.7 million) worth of methadone in a major swoop and the judicial authorities opened a criminal investigation into drug smuggling "on a large scale".

But in an embarrassing confusion, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said that the cargo had in fact been destined for battling the spread of HIV in Tajikistan, the poorest country in ex-Soviet Central Asia.

Valuing the shipment at a far more modest $79,310, the UNDP said in a statement that the methadone represented "a life-saving treatment for people who inject drugs."