MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s seizures of cocaine on its borders have risen tenfold this year, the head of the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) said this week.

The increase – presumably by comparison to the same period last year – seems to be connected to a general increase in trans-Atlantic imports of the drug.

“According to UN estimates, the volume of cocaine shipments to Europe [mostly from Latin America] over the past five years has more than quadrupled,” FSKN chief Viktor Ivanov told reporters Monday in the course of meetings with Nicaraguan military commander Julio Cesar Aviles.

Ivanov did not give absolute figures, only the relative increase.

One month ago, Russian media cited Ivanov as saying that the total amount of cocaine seized in Russia in the first eight months of 2013 had risen year on year by a factor of 15. The discrepancy may arise from a difference in the seizures measured – at the border versus overall.