SEMNAN (Tasnim) � In a joint operation by the police departments of Iran�s Semnan, Qom, and Kerman provinces, a huge drug trafficking ring was disbanded and over 2 tons of illicit drugs were seized.





Colonel Ruhol-Amin Qassemi, the commander of Semnan Province Law Enforcement, announced on Monday that Semnan�s police managed to identify and track a professional band after months of investigations.

The investigations revealed that the band was planning to transfer a huge batch of illicit drugs from eastern Iran to the central parts, he noted.

After arrangements were made among Iranian police forces in Qom, Kerman, and Semnan, a professional team of Semnan�s police forces were dispatched to Kerman and stopped a van carrying the drugs somewhere near the city of Rafsanjan, Col. Qassemi added.

Two smugglers with criminal records were arrested and 2.1 tons of narcotics including 1.8 tons of opium, 187 kg of heroin, and 207 kg of morphine were seized, he said.

In recent decades Iran has been hit by drug trafficking, mainly because of its 936- kilometer shared border with Afghanistan, where the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said 74% of the world�s opium was produced in 2012.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Iran is netting eight times more opium and three times more heroin than all other countries in the world combined.

By Tasnim News Agency