TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran's drug combat squads have seized more than 115 tons of narcotics in the first three months of the current Iranian year (started March 21), a senior police commander said.


"We have discovered 115 tons of narcotics in the country in the first three months of the current Iranian year, showing a 6-percent rise in the discovery of opium, hashish 17 percent, morphine 200 percent and heroin 82 percent as compared with last year's corresponding period," Commander of the anti-narcotics squad of Iran's Law Enforcement Police General Ali Moayyedi said.

He noted that 600 drug gangs engaged in drug supplying, trafficking and dealing have been busted in the first three months of the current year and hundreds of arrests have been made in this regard.

Eastern Iran borders Afghanistan, which is the world's number one opium and drug producer. Iran's geographical position has made the country a favorite transit corridor for drug traffickers who intend to smuggle their cargoes from Afghanistan to drug dealers in Europe.

Iran spends billions of dollars and has lost thousands of its police troops in the war against traffickers. Owing to its rigid efforts, Iran makes 81 percent of the world's total opium seizures and has turned into the leading country in drug campaign.

Sistan and Balouchestan province, where Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan come together, has porous borders, where bandits and drug traffickers operate despite frequent entanglements and intense efforts of the Iranian law enforcement police.

More than 3,720 Iranian security personnel have been killed fighting drug smugglers since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran has recently established a central database and strengthened police-judiciary cooperation in a new effort to combat organized crime.

Every year, Iran burns more than 60 tons of seized narcotics as a symbol of its determination to fight drugs.

By Fars News

 

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