TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Irans anti-narcotics police chief said the countrys law enforcement forces have seized a cargo of illicit drugs weighing a ton, in close cooperation with the Pakistani forces.General Ali Moayedi said on Sunday that Iranian police identified and confiscated the huge drug cargo yesterday with the assistance of neighboring Pakistan.
He added that the team efforts made by Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Pakistan have resulted in the seizure of more than 10 tons of drugs since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started on 21 March 2013).
The commander also noted that Iranian police have seized more than 430 tons of different types of narcotics this year, which is up 15% compared to the corresponding period last year.
General Moayedi further pointed to the countrys success in reproducing drug-sniffing dogs, and explained, Fortunately, despite the whole (anti-Iran) sanctions, we are the only country in the region that is able to reproduce different breeds of drug-sniffing dogs.
In recent decades Iran has been hit by drug trafficking, mainly because of its 936- kilometers of shared borders with Afghanistan, which supplies over 90% of the world's opium -- the raw ingredient of heroin.
The United Nations has estimated in the past that opium trafficking accounts for up to 15 percent of Afghanistans gross domestic product, but the figure is expected to rise as international military and development spending declines with the NATO withdrawal at the end of 2014.
Iran is on a major transit route for drugs smuggled from Afghanistan to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the country's war on drug-traffickers has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police forces over the past 34 years.
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
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