The results of a forensic analysis showed that 31 Islamist militants who seized a &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/96/382/14104_video.html ' target=_blank>school in Beslan last month and killed at least 330 people were drug addicts, a law enforcement official told Russian news agencies.
Blood tests showed high levels of &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/cis/2003/03/13/44352.html ' target=_blank>heroin and morphine in most of the militants, who were killed when federal forces and angry parents stormed the school at the end of a three-day hostage drama.
The tests "indicate that they were long-term drug addicts and had been using drugs permanently while preparing for the terrorist attack," Nikolai Shepel, deputy prosecutor general of Russia’s southern federal district, was quoted as saying by Interfax.
Their extreme brutality could also have been spurred on by the fact that some of them had run out of drugs.
Shepel said: "Some of the criminals had run out of &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/96/383/13850_drugs.html ' target=_blank>drugs and were suffering from withdrawal symptoms which are usually accompanied by aggressiveness and uncontrollable behaviour."
"These conclusions allow us to look at the situation from a new angle."
His claims were backed up by Alexander Torshin, the chairman of the parliamentary inquiry into the tragedy, who said that many of the witnesses he and his colleagues had interviewed had said the same, reports New Zealand Herald.
But a source in the North Ossetian police's forensic service said Monday there were no signs of the militants taking drugs. "There were no syringes, ampoules, and their wrists were without scars," he said.
"The forensic tests were carried out in Stavropol, but here we just laughed at the [idea]. There may have been some drug addicts among them, but to say they were all drug addicts is too much.", according to the Moscow Times.
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