Tasnim – Secretary-General of Iran’s Anti-Narcotics Headquarters Brigadier General Eskandar Momeni slammed some Western countries for their lack of cooperation with the Islamic Republic in the fight against illicit drugs.

Speaking at a meeting with the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, in the Austrian capital of Vienna, Brigadier General Momeni explained about measures adopted by Iran in 2018 to combat illicit drugs.

“Despite illegal, cruel, and unilateral sanctions, as well as the lack of international assistance, the Islamic Republic of Iran managed to seize more than 800 tons of illicit drugs in 2018, of which 45 tons were heroin and morphine,” he said.

Last month, the Iranian police seized 600 kg of heroin destined for Italy, he said, adding that this year, 18 police forces have been martyred during the anti-narcotics campaign.

Brigadier General Momeni went on to say that this is while, the level of international assistance to the Islamic Republic has been minimized and other countries, especially the Western countries, are not committed to “the principle of joint responsibility” in the fight against illicit drugs.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 62nd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) of the UNODC that started on March 14 and will run until March 22 in the Austrian capital Vienna.

Iran, which has a 900-kilometer common border with Afghanistan, has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.

Despite high economic and human costs, the Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug-trafficking over the past decades.

The country has spent more than $700 million on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.

The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past four decades.