Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 29
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran has rejected certain proposals by international drug trafficking cartels to open a safe narcotic transit route to Europe in exchange for preventing drug distribution inside the country, General Mohammad Masoud Zahedian, head of Iran’s Anti-Drug Police Force, said.
The Islamic Republic will counter drug transit or smuggling through its territory to any part of the world by any individual or group, Zahedian said, Tasnim news agency reported Nov. 29.
“Islamic rules never permit us to accept such offers,” he said.
Earlier, Brigadier General Mehdi Abouei, former head of Iran’s Anti-Drug Police Force, said that international drug trafficking cartels in various occasions messaged Iran that they will guarantee that not even one kilogram of narcotics will be distributed in Iran if the Islamic Republic provides a safe route for drug transit through its territory.
Iran is situated on a major drug route between Afghanistan and Europe, as well as the Persian Gulf states. The Islamic Republic shares about 900 kilometers of common border with Afghanistan, over which 74 percent of opium is smuggled.
The fight against drug trafficking annually costs Iran about $1 billion, according to the official estimates.
The statistics also say there are about two million drug users in Iran.