FNA - Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Yuri Fedotov announced that Iran ranks first among the world states in discovering and seizing narcotics.

"Drug discoveries by the Islamic Republic of Iran is 4 times larger than other world states," Fedotov said in a meeting with Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli in Vienna on Tuesday.


"The Islamic Republic of Iran's partnership in the campaign against drugs is highly important to the international community and the UN given the unprecedented growth and production of narcotics past year," he added.


Pakistan and Afghanistan are two origins of producing and trafficking various types of narcotic in the region.


The anti-drug squads of the Iranian Law Enforcement Police have intensified their countrywide campaign against drug-trafficking through staging long-term systematic operations since 2010.


The Iranian anti-narcotic police have always staged periodic, but short-term, operations against drug traffickers and dealers, but the latest reports - which among others indicate an improved and systematic dissemination of information - reveal that the world's most forefront and dedicated anti-narcotic force (as UN drug-campaign assessments put it) has embarked on a long-term countrywide plan to crack down on the drug trade since seven years ago.


The Iranian police officials maintain that drug production in Afghanistan has undergone a 40-fold increase since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.


While Afghanistan produced only 185 tons of opium per year under the Taliban, according to the UN statistics, since the US-led invasion, drug production has surged to 3,400 tons annually. In 2007, the opium trade reached an estimated all-time production high of 8,200 tons.


Afghan and western officials blame Washington and NATO for the change, saying that allies have "overlooked" the drug problem since invading the country more than 17 years ago.