DUSHANBE -- Russian border guards seized over 110 kilograms (240 pounds) of heroin on the Tajik-Afghan border, border officials in Tajikistan said early Friday.

The haul had been smuggled over from Afghanistan and left in a cache on the border for the traffickers' Tajik accomplices to pick up, the spokesman added.

Some 11,000 Russian guards patrol Tajikistan's 1,340-kilometer (840-mile) border with Afghanistan, which serves as the main transport route for Afghan drugs heading to European markets.

Afghanistan produces nearly 80 percent of the world's opium-based drugs. Russian guards patrolling the border have seized 1.5 tons of drugs this year alone. Last year, Russian and Tajik border guards seized 6.7 tons of drugs and killed more than 50 suspected traffickers. (AFP)